Welcome to your new 'Nest'

A really lovely family, and a GREAT friend moved down to CA a few weeks ago. I miss seeing them and thought I'd make a card to send lots of love their way for their new 'nest'. 

Recipe
Stamps : Take Care
Cardstock : Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Naturals Ivory
Ink : Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Baja Breeze
Accessories : Woodgrain EF, Big Shot, paper snips, Dazzling Details, Linen Thread, Word Window Punch

Cheery Thank You

My family have a sweet friend, Joyce, who has been friends with mum & dad since they moved back to Suffolk in the early 90's. She's such a sweet lady and ALWAYS remembers my daughter's birthday with a gift of English chocolates ~ she knows how much Sarah misses English sweeties :) This birthday was no exception, so I made her a thank you card which we'll send off to England to let her know how much we appreciate her kindness. 

Isn't this a fresh and fun 'thank you'? I love how it turned out. 

Recipe
Stamps : Lacy & Lovely
Cardstock : Daffodil Delight, Shimmery White
Ink : Daffodil Delight
Accessories : Paper Daisies, White Baker's Twine, Brights Button, Daffodil Stitched grosgrain ribbon, Delicate Designs EF & Large Scallop Edgelit

For the Birds Thinking of You

A CAS card for a sweet friend who's had a rough time recently.

Recipe
Stamps : For the Birds
Cardstock : Crumb Cake, Shimmery White, Wisteria Wonder
Ink : Black StazOn
Accessories : Holiday Frame EF, Big Shot, Lge Oval Punch, Bitty Banners Framelit

Serene Silhouettes Sympathy Version 2

Roy asked me to make another Sympathy card for his work colleague, this one was to be from our family. I came up with this which is a total CASE from a French Demonstrator from Lyon called Cecile Ortiz. She had posted a card on our demonstrator site using this frame idea and using these colours and the background from French Foliage. I absolutely LOVE hos this turned out. 

 I took a closer pic of the birds. I inked them up with the Baja Breeze marker but once the image was stamped the birds were a little bit washed out. I used the writing end of the marker to just add a little highlight for definition. I know I probably put the colour in completely the wrong place, but it does make the birds stand out a little more.

Recipe
Stamps : Serene Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes (sentiment)
Ink : Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze
Cardstock : Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Naturals Ivory
Accessories : Big Shot, Labels Collection Framelits, Baja Breeze Taffeta Ribbon, Bitty Banners Framelit, White Gel Pen

Serene Silhouettes Sympathy

One of Roy's work colleagues lost his mum this week so I was asked to make a card suitable for Roy's department to all sign. I really like how this turned out, it's really a very simple card which I hope will be suitable.

 The oval embossing folder was highlighted with Crumb Cake Ink and a sponge, the solid image was first inked up with Craft White, but only towards the top, then with Old Olive only at the bottom and the 'in between' bits were inked up with a marker which actually worked quite well giving some shading to the intensity of the green. You can see the colour variations in the close-up. Once the white Craft ink had dried, it was a little light so I went back in with a white gel pen.

Recipe
Stamps : Serene Silhouettes, Teeny Tiny Wishes (sentiment)
Ink : White Craft, Crumb Cake, Old Olive
Cardstock : Crumb Cake
Accessories : SU Old Olive Marker, Holiday Frame EF, Crumb Cake Taffeta Ribbon, Bitty Banners Framelits, Corner Rounder Punch

Christmas is Coming

I had a terrible time taking a good shot of this card and this was the best of a bad bunch. I took it outside to see if natural light helped, nope! Anyway, you'll have to trust me that the photo doesn't do this card justice! I used the set "Joyous Celebrations" which has one tiny mistletoe branch I was able to use to make this wreath. Love how it turned out. The close-up shots give you a much clearer idea of the true colours in the wreath.

I did some nifty shading with my Cherry Cobbler marker to make the bow pop.

Recipe
Stamps : Joyous Celebrations, Sleigh Ride (sentiment)
Ink : Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Summer Starfruit, Cherry Cobbler
Cardstock : Very Vanilla, Champagne Shimmer, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories : 2 1/2" and 1 1/4" circle punches, Window Frames Framelit, Lg Scallop Edgelit, Artichoke Seam Binding Ribbon, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Dimensionals, Polka Dot EF.

Sarah's Birthday Cake

Sarah's birthday was just lovely ~ we made a 5-tiered cake, each layer was a Victoria Sponge with different amounts of red food colouring in it. We didn't quite get it right, we wanted more definition between layers, but did it TASTE GOOD!!!

I made the banner for the top using the framelit "itty bitty banners" and various pink shades of cardstock. Some were put through the big shot with embossing folders. A whole lot of fun for a whole lot of cake!

Happy Birthday, Dear Sarah. Love you!

August Club Projects

Here are 2 of the projects I came up with for this month's Club meetings. This top one is a variation on the 'Joy Fold' card using the new ribbon slide and ornament keepsake stamp set. The DSP is from a paper stack measuring 4 1/2 x 6 1/2" called 'Festival of Prints'. Love this pretty pack of useful DSP :)

I saw this blog post by Cindy and thought the card was so unique. My only problem was that the measurements were for a 12x12 piece of cardstock and I didn't have the colour I wanted in that size. So I sat down and figured out a different version using my 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock.

For mine, you cut the cardstock at 5 1/2 x 11" and along the 11" edge, you score at 1 3/4"  3 1/2"  6 1/4" and 8". You'll cut DSP in 3 sizes, 1 1/2" x 5 1/4", 2 1/2" x 5 1/4" and 2 3/4" x 5 1/4". For the plain areas, you'll cut 2 pieces at 5 1/4" x 1 1/2". The belly band was 8 1/2" x 1 1/2".

Stamp sets used for these 2 projects were Keepsake Ornaments and Friendship Preserves. The Christmas card used Limeade and Cherry Cobbler cardstock and the Thanks card used Island Indigo and Orchard Harvest DSP.

Dad's Birthday

My Dad's birthday is on Saturday, so I made him this card and popped it in the post for him. It takes a week to get to England so I hope it gets there on time :) Mum, you can show him this blog post if the card's late!

Here's Dad last month in the Bakewell Pudding Shop in Derbyshire. Have a wonderful day, Dad. Love you!

Recipe
Stamps : You're Amazing
Cardstock  Shimmery White, Gumball Green, World Spectacular DSP
Ink : Wild Wasabi, Gumball Green, Certainly Celery, Soft Suede
Accessories : Gumball Green Satin Ribbon

Sarah's 17

My daughter's birthday is this week. She'll be 17 ~ we have lots of fun things planned for her and I'm even making a complicated cake so I'll put pics up if it works out! Love this set, love how the card turned out and love her, of course!

Recipe
Stamps : Owl Occasions, Memorable Moments
Ink : Perfect Plum, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette
Cardstock : Shimmery White
Accessories : Fan & Striped Embossing Folders, Lables & Bitty frames Framelits, small oval punch, Perfect Plum Ribbon, dimensionals

Christmas Cards

I found a great sketch over on Clean & Simple Sketches and thought I'd try out some different colour combos with my new Scentsational Season Set.

Here are my 2 VERY different samples. The monochrome one was hard to photograph, but it's Early Espresso and the mug is embossed in the new EE embossing powder.

Recipe

Stamps : Scentsational Season

Cardstock : Shimmery White, Early Espresso, Candlelight Christmas DSP, Real Red, Festival of Prints DSP

Ink : Versamark, Real Red

Accessories : Early Espresso Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, 1/2 Pearls

Christmas Ornament

Have you seen the Christmas Ornament on the front of the Seasonal Catalogue? Wow, it's gorgeous ... I managed to put together my version of it. There are a few ideas floating around the internet on how to make it, I need to play a little more, my green sections aren't very evenly spaced, so I know I can do a better job. Not bad for a first attempt though :) I hope to have this ready for a class in September. It will be a long class though, that cutting takes forever on the big shot!

Recipe
Stamps : Ornament Keepsakes
Ink : Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Cardstock : Shimmery White
Accessories : Holiday Frames framelits, faceted button, 1/2 Crystals, Snow Flurry Big Shot Die, Cherry Cobbler Scalloped Tulle ribbon

Seasonal Catalogue is LIVE today!

The new Seasonal Catalogue goes live in the US today ~ to mark the occasion, I'm having a class on Saturday 11th August at 10 am. These cards are all made using the Seasonal Catalogue samples as inspiration, all the product is brand new ... why not come along and make these cards AND pick up your free catalogue?