And here's another! #3

Guess what this is? Yep another card for the Less is more challenge again, this is the third card this week, all completely different. I quite enjoyed the challenge once I got thinking about it and now that I have raked through my non SU stamps, I have found loads of things I could use! but I think 3 cards for the same challenge is quite enough! Gosh some weeks I don't even manage ANY challenges! 

This stamp was one I have had for years and can't quite remeber her name!............it will come to me....I stamped her in basic grey and coloured her with riding hood red ink  and a touch of bravo burgundy and my waterbrush, basic grey was used to ground my image and my sentiment was from the Artistic Etching SU set........ and she definately has legs, even although they are hiding under her dress!!!!

And lucky for me this also fits this weeks challenge over at creative inspirations which was a card with no flowers, well this certainly fits the bill as it is such a CAS card.

lovely surprise!

Well what a lovely surprise I got at the end of the week - one of my crafting friends arrived with this beautiful boxed bouquet from the ladies that attend my wednesday morning craft class - they are a lovely bunch of ladies that always keep me on my toes every wednesday -

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to them all for the beautiful flowers and good wishes after my operation, hopefully it won't be too long till I can get back to running my classes again xx

Less is More card#2

Decided to have another go at the Less is More challenge this week, only thought outside the box this time, well the Eiffel Tower has four 'legs' has it not?   As it was to be a one layer card I added some dimension to my card by  masking off the top and bottom of the card and sponging tempting turqoise and pacific point ink for the blue block of colour, the Tower is from the SU set Artistic Etchings and the sentiment is from the heard from the heart set and they have both been inked in the darker pacific point

Less is More challenge - week 23 card#1

Over At Less is More this week the challenge is a one layer card and has to incorporate 'legs' - really had to think about this one, but once I was started I really enjoyed this challenge! The legs for this card challenge came in the form of the couple on the bike which is a Stampin' Up! a la carte stamp called Wedding Wheels which is available from the current catalogue, My path/hills were created by tearing some scrap paper and sponging and masking and using 2 colours of ink, sentiment from a retired SU set and the lines drawn in with SU marvellous markers and a ruler.

notebook and pencil holder

Not a card today, something a little different, I have covered a small inexpensive notebook with poppy parade card which I have stamped with the French Foilage stamp set in the same colour - I have made a pencil holder in whisper white and stamped it with the same stamp set as the notebook in the same colour of ink,poppy parade. I also sprayed them all over with champagenw shimmer mist to give them a little bit of sparkle - have still to cover a pencil to match and fit in the holder - hope you like them x

zingy summer colours

Wow - you might need your sunglasses for this one!

My colour combo is tempting turquoise, whisper white, melon mambo and daffodil delight.

Having the big shot availble to us now is just so handy - it makes your cards have loads of dimension and makes cutting so much quicker and easier - I certainly wouldn't have wanted to cut these lovely flowers out by hand. This is one of the new dies available from the stampin Up mini catalogue, as is the dots embossing folder used for the background, and lets not forget the ever versatile top note die - this has so many uses and i just can't get enought of it.

Hope i havent't dazzled your eyes with my zingy bright card

Kind Friend

Hi all

I decided to use the same colour combo as yesterdays card, and the fabulous sentiment stamp from the occasional greetings set - this has to be one of my most loved stamps......ever!

Another card using the a la carte butterfly from the SU main catalogue - used my fantastic colour coach to pick the colours, perfect plum, more mustard and whisper white - not colours I would normally use, but was quite pleased with the results, the kind thanks sentimentt has been coloured with 2 markers in the same colours as the card

Couldn't leave the inside without any decoration, so a little strip of dsp and another butterfly just to finish it off.

Curly tree & Wreath

this is my curly paper Christmas tree, I have seen lots of the Curly paper wreaths on various blogs and thought i'd have a go. I did buy the polystyrene wreath and cones last October but never got around to making them. As i am recovering from a major op at the moment there are somethings i cannot still do yet, so this was the perfect project to sit down with. I have used Stampin' Up! jolly Holly designer paper which is just amazing, the ribbon is also stampin' Up! and the jingley bells are from my stash and this fits right in with the theme over at http://simplystampinchallenge.blogspot.com/ which this week challenge#15 is anything but a card.

simply stampin challenge card #14

Well, nothing like leaving it late! The challenge this week at http://simplystampinchallenge.blogspot.com/ was to use the following colours -

so here is my card -

Rich Razzleberry A6 base card, night of navy and whisper white border strips punched with the SU eyelet border punch, stip of peach parfait dsp(hostess set dsp) and peach parfait ribbon. I decided to use the label punch to create my flower, 6 labels, folded and glued onto a 1" circle to hold together, edges inked with peach parfait and peach parfait dsp 1"circle punched and added to centre of my flower.I then twisted a strip of dsp and atttached to my flower to create a stem, night of navy hand cut plant pot with peach dsp for trim, stamped 'for you' sentiment from the occasional greetings set onto label punch in rich razzleberry and inked its edges.

hope it fits the bill!...............oops! just re read the rules when Mr linky wouldn't let me add my card..........duh! submissions closed at 6pm!!, well never mind it kept me busy when I couldn't sleep at 2am!!!

Butterfly Blue

I needed a Birthday card for a friend and as she is also an SU demo it had to be SU products for her card. I noticed that over at http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/ their challenge this week was shades of blue, so decided that this would be my colour way for my card. I have used the a la carte butterfly and colured it with SU markers - this makes it sooooo easy to add little details of colour to your stamp, I love using my markers direct on my stamps, give it a try and if you need any markers or advice just drop me a line.

 

One of the cards I made for my hubby from the kids for Father's Day - fabulously simple, but quite effective and hubby loved the bright colours!
All Stampin' Up products used on this one, DSP, old olive ribbon, card stock, circle punches and exclusive SU sizzix alphabet

pocket silhouettes

 

This was a card I made some time ago for a dear SU friend and I realised I had never added it to my blog until now -
a favourite set of mine pocket silhouettes was used, this is a great versatile set and looks so different by just changing the colours and the sentiment was from a retired Su set, but was apt as I had been naughty and was a few days late in sending this card!

Another musical 80th

This is the second card which was commissioned for the gentleman who was 80 (see yesterday's post) He was an avid music fan and taught the fiddle and was head of the local fiddle orchestra - the caption was a rub on I had in my stash and fitted the bill perfectly!

SU punches and DSP used here along with embossing folders and card stock from my stash

twisted 80th

This was a commission for an 80 year gentleman who loves music - The SU newsperint DSP jumped straight to mind, it is a great pack with lots of different designs in the pack, maps, music score, letters. writing, its great for lots of occasions.

I made a twisted easel card for the basis of my card, I used various SU circle punches and the SU star punch to create the embellishments, a die cut 80 and a few sparkly gems finished it off.

The gentleman who received this card liked it so much he has since contacted me to arrange to make his golden wedding party invites!

Plane and Simple Father's Day

My Mum and dad are off on holiday at the moment, so I had to be well prepared and have my Dad's card made well in advance so it could be packed to go with them.

I used the fabby Stampin Up! Plane and  simple set from the Mini Catalogue, this is a super set as it also has 2 brill borders that could be used for lots of occasions, I finished the card off by adding some detail to the inside, my colour combo was Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Kraft.

My 'Dad' sentiment was cut using the new sizzix alphabet( SU exclusive design) which is also available in the mini catalogue.

Apologies and Huge Thank You

Firstly an apology for being a bad blogger and falling from the face of the planet! Sorry!-I have had major computer problems which took ages to get sorted out, then once that was fixed my broadband internet decided to be the next thing to take a vacation! how very inconvenient, 2 new routers later and loads of hours on the telephone and I am at last now fixed and up and running again YAAAY!!

and now for my Huge thank you -

I would like to send a HUGE thank you to all my family, friends and wonderful SU family for the lovely cards and gifts which were sent to me after my operation and Hospital stay, I am now recovering slowly and getting better each day, I am now 3 weeks down the line and some things are starting to almost return to normal......well a little anyway -  not allowed to drive for another 4/5 weeks , so that is a real pain.  My 2 kids that are still school age start their school holidays on Thursday for seven weeks, so I am hoping that them being at home will speed my recovery and not hinder it any!!!........How many days do you think I will get before I hear.....'I'm Bored!.......

Thanks everyone for all my delicious cards .......I will post them on here very soon xxx

Mother's Day card

Forgot to add this card last week, so thought I'd show you it now - sorry the pics are a bit dull, my photography skills need a lot of improvement!!

I went for lots of embossing on this card and it was all made so easy with our new embossing folders and embosslit dies from the mini catalogue.  I have used the manhattan rose folder and embossed both sides of my base card, it just gives such a subtle embossed effect to then add my layers onto  - I have then used the new top note die cutter which was then embossed with the square lattice folder, the little dinky butterlies are cut and embossed with the Beautiful Wings embosslit die -this die is fast becoming a best seller- it cuts and embosses no less than 5 differnt sizes and patterns of butterfly in the one go, there is one butterfly smaller and two larger butterflies than the ones I have used  on my card on the same embosslit - great value!

My big flower was created by cutting a few flowers with the fun flowers sizzix die that we now sell and I just felt that I wanted to add more detail, so the flowers were also embossed with the manhattan flower embossing folder, I then rubbed my ink pad over them to pick up colour on the embossed detail.I added a little button from our brights collection of buttons and the setiment was from our occasional greetings set and cut with the decoartive label punch, and a little bow of taffeta ribbon to finish.

Hope you like all my embossing - Mum certainly did!

A manhattan rose bookmark

In this day and age where we have loads of electronic gadgets and new ways to read books and newsapapers etc, but for me there is nothing nice and more calming than sitting down and curling up on the sofa with a good book to read - a real book -one where i can turn the pages!  So if like me you like to read 'real' books, it is always handy to have a nice bookmark to keep your spot, when the dreaded Housew..k or the kids need to be attended to! 

I have used tempting turquoise, whisper whie and soft suede as my colour combo on this one, and as I have used the stunning manhattan flower embossing folder on it (isn't it just amazing!) I didn't feel it need a great deal else - my sentiment is the same one as yesterday and cut again with the decoraive label, - this punch is great as it fits loads of our sentiments from lots of the sets in both our current catalogues -the finishing touch was to add a few gems for some sparkle

Love Bikes?

Well if you love motorbikes or the man in your life does then you are sorted!  This is a cracking motorcycle stamp that is now available in the mini catalogue, and priced at only £7.95 it is fabulous value for money.  Not all our men are into football and golf etc, so this stamp makes a nice change.

I have kept my card very simple - gone withe 2 colours and used whisper white and soft suede, the bike has been coloured using our watercolour brush and the ink from the inkpad, the edges have been sponged a little to give a distressed look - the texture on the card has been added with another new product from the mini catalogue - the square lattice embossing folder - i do find myself using this one a lot - think it could be a new favourite!!!!

The sentiment is  from the cottage garden set and is stamped with the same soft suede ink and has been cut out with one of the new punches, the decorative label.I  then embossed it too and inked its edge, a little bit of twill ribbon and job done!