Mothers Day Cards

 Here's this years Mothers Day card design in a 3 different colourschemes. 

Each card uses:

• Pistachio Pudding ink
• Gumball Green ink
• Stippled Blossoms stamp set
• Sweet Laughter stamp set

This card used:

• Coastal Cabana cardstock
• Coastal Cabana ink
• Bermuda Bay ink
• Basic Rhinestone Jewels

This card used:

• Strawberry Slush cardstock
• Strawberry Slush ink
• Pink Pirouette ink
• Basic Pearl Jewels

 This card used:

• Blackberry Bliss cardstock
• Blackberry Bliss ink
• Wisteria Wonder ink
• Basic Rhinestone Jewels

Hopefully everyone liked their Mothers Day cards too.

February Birthday Cards

 There's a few birthdays in the family during February, I already had the women's cards covered as I have plenty of girly birthday cards made up ready to send...it's just men's cards that are awkward. Why are cards for men so difficult to make??

My Dad's birthday rolls up first so I thought I'd have a play with my new stamp set from February's card club. Really like the set and it's easy to make it look like a masculine card too.

I've used:

• Celebrate Today stamp set
• Balloon Framelits dies
• Real Red ink
• Marina Mist ink
• Pacific Point ink
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Baked Brown Sugar ink
• Early Espresso ink
• Dimensionals
• White cardstock
• Yellow cardstock

  Then it was Baz's so I thought I'd use a humourous set from last years SU Sale-a-bration goodies.

 I've used:

• Real Red cardstock
• Baked Brown Sugar cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Real Red ink
• Memento black ink
• Baked Brown Sugar ink
• See Ya Later stamp set
• Decorative Dots embossing folder

 That's it for birthday cards this month but there'll be more Celebrate Today cards from this month's card club being shared soon.

December Wedding Card Order

This month I had an order for a wedding card from a regular customer. She always gives me a detailed brief of what the card needs to feature.

This time the card had to have:

• The couple's names
• The wedding date
• Holly
• Blue Topaz for a december birthstone
• QPR blue
• Light christmas theme

 Here's what I came up with...

 

The cardstock is sparkly and similar to the blue topaz birthstone. The background features embossed snowflakes and some blue glitter stickles. The holly made a lovely, simple embellishment for the wedding dress and added to the christmas feel of the card. The QPR shade of blue featured as the groom's waistcoat, the ink for the sentiment and also for the text inside the card.

I always prefer to put the names and dates inside of the card, so it doesn't clutter the front of the card but also so it can be a main feature of the card insert itself. I even added a few miniature snowflakes around the text to keep the christmas/winter wedding theme going.

Hopefully both my customer and the couple themselves like the card.

Penguin Box Card

 For the last few years I've always made Dan a penguin christmas card and this year was no different....however it was a card with a bit of a difference...earlier in the year he commented about how much he liked the boat box card I made so I thought I'd combine the box cards with a penguin design.

So here's the finished penguin box card.

To make the card I've used:

• Turquoise sparkly card
• White cardstock
• Black cardstock
• Windowsheet
• Holiday Home stamp set
• No Peeking stamp set
• Gorgeous Grunge stamp set
• Pacific Point ink
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Gumball Green ink
• Real Red ink
• Owl Builder Punch

A close up of the little penguins as they are just so cool, love how versatile the Owl builder Punch is.

A view of the side panels with the flaps up so you can see the designs.

Birds eye view of the card.

Really quite an effective card to make and simple once you've made a few, the instructions can be a little daunting but the results are worth the initial struggle. I'm thinking there shall be many more box cards in 2015. The good news is that Dan also really liked his card and was glad he got his own box card too.

November Card Club Pt 1

 So the first card club of November wasn't really a normal card club night...we had more of a workshop making 3d items to inspire us for christmas.

The first thing we made was a giftbox. I must admit I hate using the Envelope Punchboard with a passion but for some unknown reason I found the Gift Box Punchboard a lot easier. Anyone else have this issue or is it just me?

 I used:

• Gift Box Punch Board
• Under The Tree Speciality DSP
• Cherry Cobbler Sheer Linen Ribbon

 Then we moved on to my favourite project of the evening, I've been wanting to play with this die for ages as Pinterest has shown me so many good ideas to use it for. I coloured my pearls in using my cherry cobbler blendabilities so they looked like berries. Inside this little christmas pudding was a ferrero rocher...yea i ate that when I brought the pudding box home.

I used:

• Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlit
• Whisper White cardstock
• Early Espresso cardstock
• Under The Tree Speciaility DSP
• Jewels Basic Pearl
• Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities

The next project was a giftcard holder, or money holder as was suggested by Suriya who was running the workshop.

I used:

•  Dots mask
• Coastal Cabana ink
• Gift Card Enclosure Pack
• Metallic Bakers Twine
• Mossy Meadow ink
• Sponge Daubers

 Suriya must know that I get through masses of notebooks a year as there was a notebook project on the to do list as well... I kept mine rather simple as it will no doubt end up in my work bag and get a tad dirty.

I used:

• Kraft Grid Journal
• Stars mask 
• Coastal Cabana ink
• Sponge Daubers

Then there was a candle to work on...

I used:

• Heat Tool
• Tissue Paper
• Real Red ink
• Mossy Meadow ink
• Festival of Trees stamp set

Using some of the spare card I had I made myself a dozen tags to go on presents.

I used:

• Whisper White cardstock
• Festival of Trees stamp set
• Mossy Meadow ink
• Tag Topper punch

There were also some card blanks to make 5 cards. really love this stamp set and it's so easy to use, it's one of the new photopolymer sets.

I used:

• Whisper White cardstock
• Mossy Meadow ink
• Real Red ink
• Pear Pizzazz ink
• Wondrous Wreath stamp set

The final project was a fabric bag to decorate.

I stamped different images from the same stamp set on either side of the bag.

I used:

• Mini Muslin Bag 
• Mossy Meadow ink
• Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon
• Many Marvellous Markers

November card club Pt 2 is on the 23rd and it's more 3d projects but this time playing with the stanmp set Lovely As A Tree. 

 

If anyone has pinterest or blog links to projects using this stamp set can you share them with me as a comment for future inspiration please?

2014 Christmas Cards

This year I've been really organised and I've already made all the christmas cards for friends and family, I've ven started making some of the presents too!

I've done 3 different designs this year, 4 of each design to cover all the people we send cards to. Simple designs but I got to play with quite a few of my favourite Stampin' Up bits.

The snowflake card used:

• Northern Flurry embossing folder
• Sassy Salutations stamp set
• Coastal Cabana ink
• Turquoise card (non SU)
• Silver stickles (non SU)

 The tree card used:

• Gorgeous Grunge stamp set
• Sassy Salutations stamp set
• Real Red ink 
• Real Red cardstock
• Star punches (non SU)

The third design I decided to use my favourite batch of Stampin Up baubles and my new Flowering Flourishes stamp set from Octobers card club.

For some reason on the blue cards I mixed the bauble designs but on the red I didn't, guess I just wasn't paying that much attention as I had no design set out before I started sticking them on.

These cards used:

• Delightful Decorations stamp set
• Delightful Decorations punch
• Sassy Salutations stamp set
• Flowering Flourishes
• Real Red ink
• Pacific Point ink
• Jewels Basic Rhinestone
• Red and blue cardstock (non SU)
• Gumball Green ink

Hopefully next year I can be just as organised and get everything done early as there's bound to be last minute cards to make and things to do, there always is.

Flower Birthday Cards

In my organised state using my rest days to get things made I've made both of my Nan's birthday cards early too! Cue playing with more Stampin Up sets that I can't wait to use.

 

The first card is for my Nan whose birthday is November 11th hence making the flower look like a poppy.

This card used:

• Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities
• Blended Bloom stamp
• Sassy Salutations stamp set
• Real Red ink
• Jewels Basic Rhinestone
• Memento ink
• Ivory cardstock (non SU)
• Black stitched ribbon (non SU)

The second card is for my other Nan whose birthday isn't till mid December but I was in the flow of making cards so I thought I'd best make it while I had a design in my head.

This card used:

• Perfectly Penned stamp
• Stippled Blossoms stamp set
• Strawberry Slush ink
• Pink Pirouette ink
• Bermuda Bay ink
• Coastal Cabana ink
• Pistachio Pudding ink
• Gumball Green ink
• Coastal Cabana cardstock
• Pink Pirouette taffeta ribbon
• Ivory cardstock (non SU)

 Here's hoping they both like their cards.

October Card Club

 This month's card club was all about the stamp set Flowering Flourishes, we each picked a colour to work with and this time I chose Daffodil Delight.

Here's the cards we made....

•  Daffodil Delight cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Flowering Flourishes stamp set
• Sassy Salutations stamp set
• Jewels Basic Rhinestone

•  Daffodil Delight cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Flowering Flourishes stamp set
• Sassy Salutations stamp set
• Jewels Basic Rhinestone
• Daffodil Delight seam binding

 

• Daffodil Delight cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Flowering Flourishes stamp set
• Sassy Salutations stamp set
• Jewels Basic Rhinestone
• I Love Lace stamp 
• Modern Label punch
• Word Window punch
• Daffodil Delight seam binding

•  Daffodil Delight cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Daffodil Delight ink
• Flowering Flourishes stamp set
• Itty Bitty Banners stamp set
•  Honeycomb embossing folder
• Bitty Banners framelits
• Ovals Collection framelits
• Daffodil Delight seam binding

 Next month is Lovely As A Tree, 3d projects and an afternoon of crafting....looking forward to it!

September Birthday Cards

 So there's 2 birthdays in September in the family (well 3 if you count me) so I made some cards.

The first was for my boyfriend and like me he likes planes... I found a use for the Stampin up set Plane and Simple that my demo friend hunted down for me..added a little bit of Gorgeous Grunge and this is the quick card I came up with.

 Then we had his mum's 50th birthday at the end of September so I dragged out some more Stampin Up favourities of mine. Love the Petite Petals punch and Sassy Salutations stamp set so of course they had to be used. The pearls and card blank aren't Stampin Up but all the card for the flowers was made using little offcuts from other projects using Crisp Cantelope, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush and Coastal Cabana cardstock.

September Card Club Pt 2...

 After a lovely sunny holiday in Spain I came home to another September card club....making CHRISTMAS cards...far too organised for me lol!

 This month's stamp set was Holiday Home with the matching framelits and the Northern Flurry embossing folder. We also bought some Dazzling Diamonds, 1/8" Silver Ribbon and a glue pen for all our glittering.

 Such a lot of sparkle going on!

Love the Confetti Stars punch we used for this card and the thinlit for creating the flip fold in the card is really starting to grow on me too.

 The final card was CASED from the Stampin' Up catalogue. By the end of the night I was covered in glitter all over, perhaps helped by the fact the other 2 ladies decided to wipe the pages used for tipping excess glitter off of all over my hair and shoulders.

I recently saw an idea on pinterest using the Holiday Home stamp set where the houses were stamped as a wobbly shape, the joy of photopolymer stanp where you can manipulate how the stamp sticks on the clear block...must try that soon!

Mr & Mrs Wedding Card

 Here's a card made for an order for an upcoming August wedding. No colourscheme to work from so I went for simple, smart colours that gave the card a classy look. It's quite a chunky, weighted card so hopefully it shall make a nice keepsake for the couple.

I got to try out my newly obtained, retired Mr & Mrs Stampin' Up stamp (thanks Paula for sourcing it for me). After a few stamps in different colours I ventured into heat embossing the Mr & Mrs and I'm quite pleased with how it came out in the silver.    The flowers are layered with a white polka dot flower behind a black polka dot flower and a clear gem brad to hold them together. The black card is very glittery and compliments the glimmer of the silver card body.After tidying up my study for decorating recently I came across this pale grey ribbon with the silver thread which turned out to blend with the rest of the card perfectly, didn't want to overload it with too much glitter and sparkle.
The customer was very happy with the card so lets the couple will be too.     

Wedding Card For Teachers

 This wedding card was an order from a regular customer, a lady who regularly gives me challenge cards to make..this card was cetainly no exception...

The couple are getting married today (19th July 2014) and they are both teachers, one teaches P.E and the other teaches science.

So the challenge was to include the following in the design:

• Their names- Ben & Alex
• Science theme
• P.E theme
• The wedding date
• Something wedding based

 This is what I came up with after many weeks of sketching and resketching ideas....

Late one night a brain wave came to me to try and make their names using elements from the periodic table to add the science to the card..this worked perfectly till the ex of Alex...so I made a new element that follows on from the last in the real periodic table to cover it. 

 

The sport theme came into the card in the form of a cricket bat, which I added the wedding date to.. I then figured I could make the name elements look like an equation where the date on the bat was the solution.

I then added the wedding element to the card using my favourite heart embossing plate, To Have and To Hold ribbon and hearts to represent the bride and groom.

Hopefully the couple like it as much as the lady who ordered it from me did...roll on the next design challenge!