Congrats and thank yous

Today I'd like to officially welcome my new downline Rosy to Stampin Up - Rosy runs a fabulous monthly craft group in Bridgwater and I know will make a fabulous demonstrator. Welcome Rosy - I hope you have lots of fun!

Here's a card I made for Rosy to congratulate her, I wanted to keep things simple for a change!


Recipe:
Stamps - Forest Friends
Ink - Old Olive/Chocolate Chip markers
Card/Paper - Very Vanilla/Kraft/Old Olive DSP
Other - Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon/Linen Thread/brown button

And here's a bunch of quick thank yous for some ladies who recently placed orders with me - I love making single layer notecards with stamps, feeds my love of stationery :)


Recipe:
(All Stampin Up)
Stamps - Wonderful Words/Close as a Memory
Ink - Handsome Hunter and Ruby Red markers
Card - Very Vanilla/Handsome Hunter

And finally... here's my entry for the current Stamp With Us recipe challenge which is to use 2 x patterned paper, 4 x brads and 1 x ribbon:


I used an old Mojo Monday sketch that I've been meaning to try out. The base of the cupcake is paper pieced with the same Junior Varsity paper.

Recipe:
(All Stampin Up unless stated)
Stamps - Crazy for Cupcakes/Circle of Friendship
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Card/Paper - Rose Red/Whisper White/So Saffron/Junior Varsity papers
Other - So Saffron brads/Very Vanilla grosgrain/Copic markers/scallop , 1 1/4 inch and 1 3/8 in circle punches

Thanks for visiting - I'll be back later with some blog candy!!

Kate x

Garden scene

Happy Monday! I didn't get much crafting done over the weekend so here are a couple of cards I made a while ago with the Scene in a Garden set but forgot to post:


As the name suggests this set can be used to create your own scene using the various stamps...and a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig is pretty useful too!

And some notecards using the super-cute boot stamps repeatedly stamped along the bottom and also on the envelope:




I also wanted to thank the Stamp With Us ladies for choosing me for their most recent Fave Five - it was a fun challenge to take part in. Thanks girls and a big congrats to the other winners!

Thanks for visiting!

Kate x

Recipe:

Stamps - Scene in a Garden/Ovals All
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Card - Whisper White/Always Artichoke
Papers - So Saffron DSP
Other - Scalloped Oval Punch/Crafter's Tool Kit/Scallop Border Punch/So Saffron Brads/Copic Markers

chocolate challenge

I hope everyone has been able to enjoy the wonderful weather today! This morning I treated myself to my weekly indulgence of a visit to our local Farmer's Market - I love to soak up the amazing array of tastes and smells offered by local producers, and of course to support their businesses. I treated my family to the must sumptious dressed crab, freshly caught off the Dorset coast yesterday - delish!

So from the savoury onto some sweetness:




This is the current (mouth-watering!) colour challenge at Stamp With Us, and here is my take on it:


Colours used are Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel - an equally mouth-watering sounding combination! Image is from Soft Summer, stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock and coloured with Copic markers, edges sponged with Close to Cocoa ink.

This is a joy-fold card, the scalloped circle holds the front of the card intact, when opened it looks like this:


I stamped the En Francais backgrounder on Creamy Caramel cardstock with Close to Cocoa ink, then sponged all the edges with the same ink.

Thanks for visiting, time for an evening walk with the dogs I think!

Recipe:

Stamps - Soft Summer/Circle of Friendship/En Francais backgrounder
Ink - Close to Cocoa/Chocolate Chip
Card - Very Vanilla/Close to Cocoa/Creamy Caramet/Chocolate Chip
Other - Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon/Copic markers/scalloped and 1 3/8 circle punches/sponges/rectangle nestabilities/adhesive pearls

Soft Summer sketches

When I sat down to do a few sketches at the weekend I wanted to use my Haiku papers, which were still unopened. Not colours I'd normally go to which stretched me a bit but that's not a bad thing!

So I chose three sketches to base my cards on, and the Soft Summer set from the Mini Catalogue.




First up, Amy's sketch...



and my card based on it:


This flower is proving to be an absolute favourite of mine. Coloured with Copics, scalloped edge punch used on the white layer which was then pierced around the sides.

Next up, last week's Mojo Monday sketch:



my card..


I used the outline berry-like image for this one, stamped in Really Rust ink, scallop edge punch along the bottom and More Mustard Grosgrain Ribbon. The felt flower is from the Flower Fusion Accents and Elements kit.

Finally the Stamps and Smiles sketch:



....and my card:


Again the outline image, stamped in Old Olive and watercoloured with More Mustard ink using a blender pen. More of those yummy felt flowers and Pumpkin pie brads in their centres.

Recipe:

Stamps - Soft Summer
Ink - More Mustard/Old Olive/Really Rust/Basic Black
Card - Whisper White/Old Olive/More Mustard
Papers - Haiku DSP
Other - Flower Fusion felt flowers/Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive brads/Nestabilities and Cuttlebug/Paper piercing kit/More Mustard and Grosgrain ribbon/Scallop Edge border punch


And finally I want to say a big helloooo and thank you to two of my loveliest blogging buddies Aimes and Sara for this cute award - thanks girls!!! Please go and visit them - they are both hugely talented and inspiring stampers and lovely ladies to boot! I've got to get off this computer but I'll pass this on very soon.


Thanks for visiting and hope to see you soon!

Kate x

Rose inspiration

Happy Monday everyone, I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, wasn't the weather fab! I had a lovely morning on Saturday - I did a Stampin' Up! workshop for a lovely lovely group of ladies in Bridgwater. I want to say a big thank you to Rosy and all the lovely ladies at WestField Craft Club for making me feel so welcome!

This is the inspiration piece I chose for last week's Inspiration and Themes challenge on In Love With Stamping:


The picture is from Harlequin Textiles and Fabrics, and here is my card based on it:



Recipe:
(All supplies Stampin Up unless stated)

Stamp - A Rose is a Rose Ink - Regal Rose/Pretty in Pink/Old Olive
Card - Old Olive/Pretty in Pink/Regal Rose/Whisper White
Paper - Holiday Treasures
Other - Hodgepodge Hardware/scallop edge punch/Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder/Regal Rose Grosgrain ribbon

And today we've set another challenge over on A Passion For Papertrey, here's my sample for the challenge:



Finally I'd like to thank the Stamp With Us girls for choosing my flower pot card as one of their Top Five for last week's challenge - thanks so much and congrats to the other ladies who won too!

Thanks for visiting!

Birthday cuppies and a card

The current Stamp With Us challenge is to make a birthday card - good timing as it was my dear mum's birthday yesterday so needed to get one done anyway! My mum is passionate about gardens so a garden-themed card it had to be - in the end I chose to make a flower-pot card (measurements on Splitcoast).

This....


becomes this...



Fun isn't it?!! I stamped flowers from Cause for Celebration and Best Wishes and More, cut them out then sponged the edges. Leaves are also from Best Wishes and More. The flowers and leaves were adhered with dimensionals, then added various matching buttons and brads to their centres.

Recipe:

Stamps- Ink - Always Artichoke/ So Saffron/Pretty in Pink/Bashful Blue
Card - Kraft/Whisper White/Always Artichoke/So Saffron/Bashful Blue paper from Summer Picnic papers
Other - buttons/brads/Very Vanilla Grosgrain ribbon/linen thread

And where there's a birthday there must be cake right?! As I always like everything to be matchy matchy I wanted to co-ordinate the card with a cake so started planning a flower pot cake, time was against me though so I changed plans to these:


MMMM! I love how these turned out!

The toppers are made by stamping the same flowers from Cause for Celebration in So Saffron, Pretty in Pink and Bashful Blue. Cut them out, sponged their edges then adhered them to cocktail sticks.


Then stamped HAPPY BIRTHDAY with Papertrey's Fresh Alphabet set, punched out each letter with a 3/4 inch circle punch, sponged the edges and adhered them to the flower centres. This is such a fun idea - you can spell out people's names, special messages or stamp monograms for parties!


Edited to add: Cupckae recipe is from the fabulous Kate Shirazi

Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Kate

Easter picnic

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend! Anyone else happy not to eat chocolate for a few days??!!

This is the card and little gift I gave to my dear dad for Easter. He's not a big chocolate fan so I bought some spiced nuts and packaged them up with a card to match. These seem to be my go-to male colours - Cream, Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip.

The stamp is a Lockhart image, coloured with Copics - for the bag I cut him out and used him as a tag. Background paper on the card is Kraft paper from the Level 1 hostess 6 x 6 paper pack.

Yesterday (which was a Bank Holiday here in the UK) my best friend Ashley, her husband and their beautiful baby girl came to visit - Ashley and I shared a house at university, then lived together in London for years. Now we live 5 hours away from each other so time together is very precious!

Thankfully we had a glorious sunny day so we went out and had lovely picnic - I love this picture Ashley took of me and Sophie!!


Hope everyone has a great week, thanks for visiting!

Kate x

chocolate heaven

I baked these yummy brownie cupcakes this morning - yep, they're officially yummy!

Wishing all my visitors a very happy, relaxing and chocolate-laden Easter! And Passover wishes to those who celebrate it too.

Thanks for visiting!

Kate x

Easter blessings

A few more Papertrey Easter cards, I love this new Labels 4 die, it's so elegant. All details over on A Passion for Papertrey

Challenges

Hi everyone and Happy Easter weekend, the sun's out and I've finished all my Easter crafting (finally!).

Like many others, I'm a big fan of Laura Fredrickson and in particular her weekend sketch sets - taking a few sketches and using the same colour scheme and stamp set for them all. It's a fabulous idea, and once you've got the supplies chosen they come together pretty quickly.

Here are three cards from sketches that I made yesterday and today:


I used my beloved Kraft cardstock, and chose to work with the same image for all three - the cake image from the Level Two Hostess set, Cause for Celebration. Papers are from the Washington Apple paper pack, from the new Mini catalogue.

The first card is based on last week's sketch over at Splitcoast:



...based on this sketch (sorry it's so diddy!)



Next up, the Stamps and Smiles sketch challenge:


...based on this sketch:



And finally, my take on the current sketch challenge at Stamp With Us.





Here's the sketch:





















Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Recipe:
(All SU unless stated)

Stamps - Cause for Celebration
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Card/Paper - Very Vanilla/Kraft/Real Red/Washington Apple DSP
Other - Kraft ribbon/Real Red grosgrain ribbon/buttons/Copic Markers/Circle Nestabilities(Spellbinder)/Crafter's Tool Kit/Vintage Brads

Easter Wishes

This is an Easter card and little gift for my dear mum. She has a strong faith which has helped her through some tough times so these beautiful crosses from Serendipity Stamps seemed a great choice. Plus they were super fun to colour!

The template for the rounded box in on SplitCoastStampers - fun and very easy to make. I filled it with Lindt chocolate eggs (I picked all the aqua ones from the pack as they co-ordinated the best with the project - believe me!)

Hope everyone is winding down to the long weekend - it's miserable weather here so fingers crossed that changes for Easter!

Thanks for visiting today!

Recipe:

Stamps - Serendipity/Seasonal Wishes (SU)
Ink - Memento black
Card - Cameo Coral/So Saffron
Paper - So Saffron DSP (SU)
Other - Copic Markers/Oval nestablities/Crafter's Tool Kit

Welcome Jo!

This is a card I made for my new downline Joanna - a huge welcome to Stampin' Up! Jo and loads of luck with your demo career!!

Recipe
(All supplies Stampin Up unless stated)

Stamps - Bloomin with Beauty/All ovals
Card - Whisper White/Elegant Eggplant/Old Olive
Paper - Holiday Treasures DSP
Other - Scallop oval punch/Copic markers/Crafter's Tool Kit

And for you Papertrey fans we've just posted a new challenge on A Passion for Papertrey, here's the card I made for the challenge:



Thanks for visiting!
Kate x

Easter blessings

A bunch of Easter cards made with different Papertrey colours - details on A Passion for Papertrey

Have a great weekend y'all!!

Kate x

Easter chick

Today's Inspiration and Themes Challenge over at In Love With Stamping is to create a project with an Easter theme - for all the stamps I own, I don't seem to have many specific Easter stamps but then I remembered this little bird from the Fun and Fast Notes set.

I masked off the matching sentiment, coloured him (or is it a her?!) with Copics and cut the image with circle nestabilites for the card and oval nestabilities for the basket.







I got the instructions for the basket from Jennifer's blog. Cardstock is Old Olive, I used the scallop border punch to make the scallops on the handle, added some So Saffron DSP and some of the yummy new Bashful Blue striped ribbon.

Speaking of yummy does anyone manage to make chocolate Easter gifts without nibbling on some of the contents??!! (Not me!)

Thanks for visiting!

Recipe:
(All supplies Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated)

Stamps - Fun and Fast Notes/Seasonal Wishes (sentiments)
Cardstock - Whisper White/Old Olive/So Saffron
Papers - Old Olive/So Saffron
Other - Circle and Oval Nestabilities, ribbon tag die (Spellbinder)/scallop edge punch/Copic markers/Bashful Blue brads/Bashful Blue striped ribbon