Calypso Coral Cupcakes

Good morning,

After a horrible day at work yesterday and a walk-a-bout cat I was so glad that I had booked today off as holiday a while back. Not only is the weather lovely, but I'm planning to spend the day crafting and possibly watch the king's speech later, just what I need!

I'm hoping that this won't be my only card I get completed today, I have been looking at the finale Viva sketch I still had to complete to enter the months competition for some time, but nothing was coming to me. So while I was looking at some challenges this weeks Color Throwdown combo jumped out at me, it contains 3 in-colours 2 of them brand new ones available to you from Saturday!

I wasn't sure that Poppy Parade and Calypso Coral would go together but actually I think they are a great match, they layer together perfectly. I didn't want to go too over the top with the Chocolate Chip so I just stuck to stamping and inking edges with it. I have added Dazzling diamond glitter to the cupcake frosting, a girl can't have a cupcake without glitter. This card is for my niece Beth, whose birthday is early next month, so I have added a monogram to the tag which I rubbed over with Champagne mist shimmer paint, looks lovely IRL.

Here's the sketch the Viva La Verve sketch that I was working from, as you can see I have swapped that flower element for you a bow tied with Poppy Parade ribbon.

Why not give it ago yourself, xx

Viva la Verve Finale

What a day, I've been a very busy bee!

If you are just joining me I set myself the task this morning of making a card for the 4 Viva la Verve sketches released so far this month, there is one more to be unveiled, but that isn't until Friday so my inky fingers can have a rest before then.

This finale card is by far my favourite, (shhh, don't tell the others, so much so that I would like to share it with the ladies over at Make it Monday hope they like it as much as I do) I have turned the sketch around to make a horizontal card and combined it with the colour challenge over at Just Add Ink, which I wasn't sure about as I'm not normally a fan of oranges but I actually really loved in the end!!

I have combined a retired stamp set with a new one for this card, I think they really compliment each other, plus I think this card could be used for a man or women, which always good to have on standby!

Can't wait for the next sketch now! Why not have a go at a sketch yourself? xx

The Cherry On Top

Good morning,

I'm back with another challenge combo.

Sometimes I know exactly what I want to do when I see a challenge set out before me, other times I sit at my desk and wonder what to do. This was one of whose times, I sat there staring at my stamp sets with out a clue what to do, only knowing that I wanted to enter another card into the Shabby Tearoom challenge of polka dots. I flipped through my Brights DSP stack I decided to use Real Red polka dots, and then it came to me in a flash, my Tart and Tangy stamps, the cherries would be a perfect match to the red paper I had chosen. That meant that I would have to use green as a second colour for the stalks and a neutral so I went for Choc Chip.

I wanted to play along with this weeks Mojo Monday sketch which I have adapted a little

I don't have a photo corner punch yet, so I decided to do a little distressing in the corner, and place another DSP this time Pear Pizazz In-colour paper behind, I also co-ordinated this with a layer on the front.

Right at the end I decided to add buttons for the cherries, I'm really quite pleased with this one.

See you again soon, I hope, xx

Pick a Petal

Good Morning,

I have been crafting for almost 4 years now and have been purchasing Stampin' up! products for the last 2 years although I have only been a 'demo' since January. Ever since I got to thumb through my first SU! catalogue I have had a wish list as long as your arm! There are some sets that you want, but they never seem to get to the top of your list, other things always push them back. Well that's how it was for the Pick a Petal set, it's always been on my wish list but when ordering I've always been wooed by something else. Well about a fortnight about I finally got my hands on it and now I'm wondering how I ever did without it!

Take a look at this card I made using the Pick a Petal set and the in-colours.

I don't want to blow my own horn but isn't it pretty?! I wish that I'd got it ages ago now, and I can see it being being turned into butterfly wings, and I have used the centres for the background stamping in this card.

I have also just managed to get this posted in time for the Try it on Tuesday challenge, which is flower power.
Hope you like my offering, xx

Less vs More

Good Afternoon!

I have been a busy bee today, cleaning up our old house ready for viewings, very hard work! My hands were definitely build for crafting not cleaning. A couple of loads of washing (luckily the sun put in an appearance this afternoon so haven't had to put the tumble dryer on) and the food shopping, not a great experience on a Saturday afternoon but these things have to be done.

So I needed something nice to finish off the afternoon and what better way than the Less is More challenge.

Which this week is a sketch, I do enjoy sketches but I must admit that Less is More does not come naturally to me, here is that sketch that the lovely ladies have asked us to use

I decided to go for a monochrome card using one of the in-colours called Concord Crush, a gorgeous deep purple, one of the best things about Stampin' up! is that every is colour coordinated which makes monochrome cards super easy. I used Concord Crush card stock, ink, and patterned paper, all safe in the knowledge that they would all be a perfect match.
So here it is

I liked it, but I wasn't in love with it and I think it's because it was lacking something so I added just a few details, it's still simple (for me) but just not as simple as maybe the LIM ladies would have liked. Sorry ladies I really did try to keep it clean and simple, but my fingers got carried away, and my card ended up looking like this.

I'm much happier with it now, and I'll just have to accept the consequences of my embellishing actions.
Have a great weekend  xx

New Home Mini Set

Good morning,

I was asked if I make new home cards a little while ago by my sister, as she was needing a few small cards. I haven't made a new home card in a while in fact it's probably more like a couple of years! So I went through my stash and remembered that last year's Sale-a-bration set was a dinky little town set. It's called Good Neighbours and is made up of three houses, three roofs, three trees and a cute little cloud. So continuing with the trying to use all my stash challenge I set myself I dusted off the stamps and got to work.

I've used cute mini card blanks (10cm x 10cm) and gone with a colour theme for each one, Real red, Melon mambo, Old olive, Concord crush, and Peach parfait. I really love how you can switch the roofs around for a different look. My stamp-a-ma-jig worked overtime on this little collection!

I hope that she likes them.

Easel For Ruth

Hiya,

Sorry for my lack of posting this week, I thought I'd scheduled this post but I must have just thought about doing it, and not actually done it, hopefully this doesn't mean I'm going completely mad!!

You may remember I received a card a little while a go from the very thoughtful Ruth over at Flower Sparkle, (her blog is amazing, so please do go and check it out) if you missed her gorgeous her you can find the post here.

Well I wanted to make her a card in return, and I wanted it to be a special card. So I had a go at my very first easel card, I have always thought that these cards looked really complicated but It was actually much simpler than I expected and very fun to do!
Ruth had posted about her fear of orange, this is a fear that I share coupled with yellow, these colours scare me so I wanted to try and make a card using this colour. I decided on the in-colours Peach Parfait and Pear Pizazz.

So what do you think? Not bad for my first attempt. I actually quite like this colour now, I think because it's not a really bright orange, and aren't these FREE (level 1 hostess) papers just gorgeous!

Well I hope you'll pop back tomorrow, for challenge Saturday. It's officially my favourite day of the week!