Simply Stampin Sketch Week

Good morning!

I can't believe it's been a who;e week since I lasted posted, that has just flown by!!! Thank you for all the messages I had last week about my baby news, it's so exciting to finally share it with everyone!

So onto this weeks challenge, which is a sketch

I am trying to use up some of my DSP stash before everything retires, I don't know about you but I buy all the new DSP each year, stroke it for months not wanting to use too much of it up then find myself using it like mad in September, please tell me I'm not alone in this DSP fetish, next year I will have to use it up all year instead of saving it, I still have paper from the previous years that I didn't want to use all of!

Anyway getting back to this weeks card, I had an idea to make a sort of envelope pocket out of the Top Note now I'm sure many other people have probably already done this but I was quite proud of myself with how this baby turned out.

Here's my card

I decided not to add the greeting to the bottom corner of my card instead I've hidden it inside the top note pocket!

You can really see the whole Top note shape when it's opened out like this, Hope you like my card and that maybe I've inspired you to give the challenge a go this week! Can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Happy Stampin'

Simply Stampin' Week 40

Good morning!!!

It's almost time to welcome in the New Year, but before we all have a few too many drinks and head towards a stranger with lips puckered, it's time for the Simply Stampin' challenge, which this week is a sketch.

I absolutely adore bunting on cards, it's so pretty! My friend Steph and her hubby Mark, had a little baby boy late Tuesday night, who they have decided to call Matthew. So I just had to make a congratulations card for both of them, and I thought the bunting would be perfect for a baby card!


I have used two of the patterned papers from the aptly named Nursery Nest DSP pack, and then got to work with the little lion from the Fox and Friends set and my trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig, stamping one lion in Marina Mist and all the rest in Lucky Limeade. I have cheated slightly and placed my greeting below the ribbon, I did try putting it on the ribbon but it didn't look right.

I do hope you'll join in the fun with this challenge, I can't wait to visit you and see what you come up with. xx

Happy Birthday Sian!

Good Morning!

Today (as you may have guessed from the title of this post) is my friend Sian's birthday, we met a few months ago after entering a new challenge at the same time and we have been chatting ever since.

I know she is OBSESSED with all things Verve, so I just had to make her card following one of the Viva La Verve sketches, and she told me that this circular one was her fave so it was a no brainer, I had to use this one!

I have used new DSP called Cheerful Treat, and some of the new in-colours, and I dusted off a punch that I haven't used for ages!

Hope you have a great day Sian, filled with plenty of crafting, family and friends!

See you soon, xx

Paper Players and Shabby Tearoom Challenge Card

Good evening all,

What a day, my cat is poorly again! This time he has a dental abscess, which means a very swollen lip, and a thoroughly fed up puss. The poor little man doesn't know what to do with himself. He's struggling to eat and drink, as a result he has no energy and coupled with a very high temperature his joints are sore so he can't jump or co-ordinate himself properly. So we have more antibiotics and painkillers, which he will also not be happy about.

Anyway back to happier things, I'm always on the look out for new challenge blogs and I found this one last week, it's called The Paper Players. This weeks challenge is a colour combo of triple pinks.

I was a little worried about this combo until I got the colours out of my stash, they look really pretty together, here is the very feminine card that I have come up with.

I am also entering this card into another new challenge I'm found called The Shabby Tea Room whose theme this week is polka dots, I love polka dots so I can see me entering this one more than once!

Hopefully the rest of the week will be less eventful than today, xx

Mojo Monday

Good evening,

It's Monday again, doesn't it roll around quickly! I have decided to hid away in my craft room for a little while this afternoon and join in with this weeks Mojo Monday sketch. I have a few birthdays coming up so I need some inspiration and this was just the ticket.

I have changed the ribbon and bow for some bunting (I've been dying to get this set inked up!) and again have taken the opportunity to use some more of my DSP (Greenhouse Gala) I like to make monogram cards for my friends at work so this one will be for my friend Steph. I have used my trusty Colour Coach again for the colour combo, really loving this handy tool.

So anyway, enough of my babbling, here is the card

I'm really pleased with this one. I can be my own worst enemy when critiquing my own work, I think we all are, it's about time we gave ourselves a pat on the back, when we like a creation!

Enjoy the rest of your week! xx

Happy Birthday Mum!

Good Morning,

Today is my Mum's birthday! I really don't know what I'd do without her, she is my best friend, and I love her more than I could ever say. So I wanted to make her a birthday card using her favourite stamp set which she picked out of the mini catalogue, Nature Walk.

I think that she would make a great crafter, she is brilliant at drawing (although she'd never admit it) and has also enjoyed decorating and making things for her home. I'm hoping to get her to take the leap into the world of paper craft someday.

I had seen a gorgeous card using this set somewhere, but can't remember who's blog it was on. I always have my phone handy when I'm at the computer so I can take a quick picture of any cards that I'm inspired by.

So here is the card I've made for her,

I have used a few items here for the first time, including the stamp set, the card stock vellum, and the big buttons. I have used DSP from to different paper packs, the bottom half is from Greenhouse Gala, and the top is from Lap of Luxury. Stampin' up usually retire all the designer series paper packs with the launch of the new catalogue is if you've been hankering after one, time is running out.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, xx

Simply Stampin' sketch week

Hiya,

Last week I was uploading my Simply Stampin' challenge entry at the very last minute and I'm not quite sure I made it in time. So this week I wanted to make sure that I wasn't trying to get it on in the last 10 mins before closing.

Sketch week is here again, and here is the sketch we've been set to work with,

I love that they've kept it simple so it gives a lot of scope to do your own thing with.

I decided that I wasn't using my Springtime Vintage DSP nearly enough so I thought I would choose a paper and work my colour scheme around it.

I have used the ruffled ribbon as one of my elements (not sure if I like it still though, maybe needs a little tweaking) and an embossed butterfly for the other, whilst making use of my eyelet border punch for the horizontal layers.

I love the Curly Cute greeting set, so went with Happy Birthday for my greeting. I love that SU! products all colour co-ordinate it made it very easy to put out the same colours to layer up with and ribbon matching too.

I hope the girls like my entry and that you do to.

Happy stampin' xx

Splash of Green

Hello again,

well it's raining here, and I only have 11 days till moving day so I'm getting in all the crafting that I can before I have to pack up, hopefully I'll have room in the stop-gap to have my desk out while we're looking for our own place, otherwise I may go completely mad!

I decided to play along with another challenge, (another one! I hear you cry) I really do love challenges, and I have to get my fix while I can! This time it's the Play Date Cafe which is another colour challenge.

 The focus this week is black, white and a splash of green, I have been asked to make a few cards so this challenge gave me the inspiration for this card.

I have chosen the in-colour Pear Pizazz for my splash of green, I really love this shade, it's quite vibrant without being too OTT, I also coloured some rhinestones with a pro-marker to tint them.

I hope that I haven't used too much green for it to be considered a splash, it was quite hard to stop once I'd started adding colour.

Goodbye for today xx

Another Triple Challenge Card

Good morning,

It's a little overcast and dull here this morning, not very inspiring at all. Good thing it's Sunday, as each week I pop over to the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge blog to be inspired with a beautiful sketch



I have also combined my card with the Simply Stampin' colour combo



I didn't have any basic grey CS, or ink so I have substituted this for some grey/silver brads, hopefully this is OK. I would also like to enter this card for the Less is More challenge which this week is a thank you or congrats card.

So here it is

I'm continuing on my own personal challenge (see yesterdays post if you don't have a clue what I'm babbling about LOL) to use all of my stamps and not just stick to my favourites. I'm not sure if I've used this one, which makes me think that I haven't. It's a level 1 hostess set called Punch Potpourri, which co ordinates with four of the punches. The bird punch is another of the items that I bought which rarely gets any use. I can't think why, it's very pretty!!

I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who left me comments, I do love to read them, and try to leave one back for you.
xx

Triple Challenge Combo

Good afternoon,

Just quickly popped on to post my card which combines three challenges (my most so far!) before we have a BBQ, very impressed that the first one of the year is so early. Isn't the weather just glorious?!

Well on to my card

As I said I'll be entering this one into three challenges, Less is More, which this week challenged us to 'off centre' which after lasts weeks acetate challenge was a welcome relief, thanks ladies. I actually enjoyed last weeks challenge after all my huffing and puffing!

The colours have been taken from Colour Throwdown, which this week let us choose one colour to mix into the combo

I have used Night of Navy, Whisper White and added Old Olive as my guest colour, I was going to go with Rich Razzleberry but I wanted my card to have a more neutral feel to it.

Lastly the sketch used fitted perfectly with the Less is More - off centre, which is from the Simply Stampin' challenge blog, I do love a good sketch, and here it is

The recipe

Stamps, Curly cute, Pocket silhouettes

Paper, Whisper white CS, Night of navy CS, Old olive CS

Ink, Old olive, whisper white

Accessories, Beautiful wings embosslit, 1/4" grosgrain ribbon whisper white, Jumbo eyelets, Designer buttons brights.

Thanks for stopping by.

Less is More sketch challenge

Good Afternoon everyone!

Last week I participated in the Less is More blog challenge, I really enjoyed doing something a little different to my usual style, so I popped over this morning to have a look at this weeks challenge, it's a sketch!

I love sketches, and recently bought a book of card sketches for when inspiration runs away from me and leaves me needing help, so this is a great challenge for me.
I had a few ideas so don't be surprised if you see more than one card for this challenge.
If you'd like to join in the challenge, or have a look at all the other wonderful entries please pop over there, just click on this link.

So here is my card

In the challenge we were asked to use DL cards, which definitely left more 'white space' which is a good thing over at 'Less is More'.

This stamp is from the Crazy for Cupcakes set, I never really took much notice of this lovely little balloon, well when there's a cupcake around who takes much notice of anything else?!

I also added glitter to the balloons, here's a close up, I hope that isn't breaking any rules of the challenge.

Here's the recipe
Stamps Crazy for cupcakes, Curly Cute (sentiment)
Paper, Brights DSP stack, Real Red CS, Daffodil delight CS, Pumpkin pie CS, Whisper white CS
Ink, Staz on, chocolate chip
Accessories, Marina mist satin ribbon, white gel pen, scallop circle punch, stamp-a-ma-jig, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter.

Hope you like my second attempt at 'less is more', I'd love to know what you think, so please leave a comment if you'd like.
xx

Butterflies and buttons

Good morning!

I'm starting the day bright and early with a shot of espresso, card not coffee. Today's cards uses the colour combo of Early espresso, Real red and Very vanilla, and I hope you'll agree its makes a great combination.

I can't seem to make a card lately without my hands gravitating towards my butterfly punch, and this card is no different! But this time I wanted to try to use my buttons in a different way so I've added buttons and gems onto the butterflies bodies.
Let me know what you think.

I was quite pleased with how this one turned out, I wasn't sure while I was working on it, but it came together in the end.

Here's what I used to make it -
Stamps, Butterfly prints, Curly cute
Card, Early espresso, Real red, Very vanilla,
Ink, Cherry cobbler,
Accessories, Chocolate chip satin ribbon (sadly retired), Scallop border punch, Butterfly punch, Designer buttons, (gems from my stash)

As my last post said I've got new goodies, so I hope you'll pop back soon to see some more creations.