Blooming again

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I just love the weekend that the clocks go forward - as much as I love our seasons the short days of winter don't get much approval from me! And to be able to walk the dogs in daylight at approaching 8pm last night was fabulous!

I made this card a few week's ago for a Jen del Muro sketch but didn't post it. I adore this flower from the Bloomin Beauty set. I coloured it with Copics, used Tea and Crumpets papers, Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon and Pretty in Pink brads.

Recipe: (All Stampin Up unless stated)

Stamps - Bloomin Beauty
Ink - Memento black
Cardstock/Papers - Whisper White/Always Artichoke/Pretty in Pink/Tea and Crumpets DSP
Other - Copic markers/Crafter's Tool Kit/Pretty in Pink brads/Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon/Spellbinders ribbon tag dies

Thanks for stopping by today!

Tagged...

Sara, one of my lovely stamping buddies has tagged me in this fun photo-tag game - go to the fourth photo in the fourth folder of your photos and share it. (And no cheating lol!)



I was quite pleased that mine was something other than a card! I snapped this little fella last January - it took me ages (and dozens of attempts) to get one of him upright, these birds just won't stay still when you want to take their picture don't you know!!

So I'm now tagging the following lovely ladies to play:
1)Jules
2)Steph
3)Aimes
4)Jo

Antique card

I was asked to show the antique Mother's Day card I bought for my mum - here it is, unfortunately no date but we're guessing it's Edwardian so pretty much 100 years old. There's an address and a note on it which makes it even more special. Who sent it.....? Who was it sent to....? Fascinating!

Shabby PTI

This is the card I made for my mum on Mother's Day. She's a historian and love anything with a vintage feel. In an antiques market I found an Edwardian Mother's Day card (imagine that - a card that was written and sent around 100 years ago!) which I gave to her with this card and a history book she wanted.

All supplies are from Papertrey Ink, details are here on our PTI blog.

Thanks for visiting!

Kate x

toadilly three

I don't do a lot of 'cute' stamping but actually when I do I quite enjoy it, especially the colouring!!! Plus this stamp is soo adorable!

This is a birthday card for the son of a dear friend of mine across the pond - since the lovely chap is turning 3 I thought this trio of toads would fit the bill, as would the uber-bright colour scheme!! They were coloured with Copic markers, as was the number 3 shaped chipboard.

I hope you have a toadilly fantastic day ho ho!

Recipe:
Stamp - Penny Black
Cardstok - YoYo Yellow/Glorious Green (Stampin Up)
Other - Circle Nestabilities/Cuttlebug bubbles embossing folder/Copic markers/On Board Lots of Letters (Stampin Up - retired)/green brads

A Christening

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and all you mummys out there were totally spoiled on Mother's Day yesterday!

As well as being Mother's Day, yesterday was also the Christening of my best friend's beautiful baby girl, Sophie. Here's the card I made for her:



I used Papertrey's Fresh Alphabet to spell out Christening, and paper pierced along the sides. The flowers were stamped from the One of a Kind set punched out with the matching Boho Blossoms punch.

The beautiful felt butterfly is from Jenni Bowlin, with a little snippet of grey taffeta ribbon adhered behind and adhesive pearls adhered to its body.

Recipe:
Stamps - Fresh Alphabet (Papertrey Ink)/One of a Kind (SU)
Ink - Regal Rose (SU)
Card - Very Vanilla/Regal Rose/Going Grey (All SU)
Other - Cuttlebug embossing folder/felt butterfly (Jenni Bowlin)/Crafter's Tool Kit(SU)/adhesive pearls

And here's the gift I (half) made for her - I say half made because I can't take credit for the cushion itself. (I didn't trust my sewing skils!) I did do the tapestry though - it's from Jolly Red who make fabulous, modern needlepoint and tapestry kits.

I guess I'm quite a hyperactive person and find it hard to just sit down and watch TV as other people seem to manage to do lol! I always like to be doing something at the same time so tapestries are good for this.

On and off this took months - oh and that's another thing, it's good for teaching me patience! I love to get a project finished in one go as you can with a card, so it's a good lesson to learn to just enjoy the process of creating something over a long period of time.

This tapestry is called S for Seahorse - I followed the seaside-themed kit design then personalised it with Sophie's name and date of birth.



And finally, don't forget to check out our Papertrey blog for our new challenge - here's a peek at my take on it:


Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you soon!

Inspirations

I love fashion, I love design and I love taking inspiration for the latest trends for my papercrafting projects.

For today's Inspiration and Themes Challenge over on In Love With Stamping I chose this picture from the current Boden catalogue. Oh yep, and I love Boden too! Such wonderful colours and fantastic design detail - always a great source of inspiration for stamping.... and a great way to use your credit card too ;)



I'm loving the grey and yellow combinations we're seeing so much this season so I chose the dress on the left for my inspiration.


I used Going Grey and So Saffron and aren't they just fabulous together!! The stamp set is Soft Summer in the new Mini catalogue, and I love it. I stamped the Polka Dot backgrounder with Grey ink on the So Saffron base layer, then coloured the image with Copic markers.

The sentiment is one of the Circle of Friendship stamps, with part of the side cut off. The white vertical strip is punched with the spiral punch.

Ok, that's it for me - I have some choc-chip ice cream and some Sex and The City episodes to kick back with, still love those gals (and New York....sigh!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe:
Stamps - Soft Summer/Circle of Friendship/Polka Dot backgrounder
Ink - Going Grey
Cardstock - Whisper White/Going Grey/So Saffron
Other - Crafter's Tool Kit/circle punches/white brads/spiral punch/Copic markers/grey taffeta ribbon/yellow button

THANK YOU!!!

I just wanted to say a huge thank you for some awards some of my lovely lovely blogging friends have passed on to me this week.

Thank you Zoe for this




And thank you Steph and Aimes for this one


I'll be back to pass these on! In the meantime do stop by Steph, Aimes and Zoe's blogs - they are some of my favourite and well worth a visit!

Krafty cuts

Happy Monday everyone! What gorgeous weather we're having - all the daffodils are out, the trees are in blossom and the birds are singing louder - spring is definitely in the air! (Thank goodness!)

Here are two more cards using the Fresh Cuts set - this time with the leafy spring stamp. I've used my favourite Kraft cardstock for both, along with Not Quite Navy and Sage Shadow - I just love this colour combo.


Papers are from the Level 1 hostess paper pad (in Kraft). I coloured the stamp with my markers then stamped it three times, then added dots with a white gel pen for some 'pop'. The ribbon is the yummy new striped ribbon from the Mini.


Again I used papers from the Level 1 hostess paper pack, this time in Not Quite Navy. I randomly stamped the flower image to form a circle around the sentiment - also in the Fresh Cuts set. Again I added some white dots to the flowers and inked the edge of the circle with white ink.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Recipe:
Stamps - Fresh Cuts
Ink - Not Quite Navy and Sage Shadow markers/Basic Black ink/white ink
Card/Paper - Whisper White/Kraft/Not Quite Navy/Sage Shadow/Level 1 hostess paper pack
Other - Crafters Tool Kit/Bashful Blue striped and satin ribbons/white gel pen/circle nestabilites/scallop border punch/white brads

Fresh Cuts

Hello, Happy Friday and Happy Red Nose Day!! I hope everyone is joining in the fun and raising some money today!

It's been an exciting week for Stampin Up demonstrators as we have been able to pre-order sets from the fabulous new Mini catalogue! All the sets and accessories from the catalogue will go on sale on April 1st but til then there'll be a fair few sneak peaks on lots of blogs! To view the catalogue click on its image on the side bar to the right.


I didn't know where to start when I got my goodies but went for the Fresh Cuts stamp set and matching notecards - these are square white notecards that have a flower die cut from them. Wonderful for creating quick and stylish cards. The entire notecard is stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink with the one big collage style stamp from the set - just stunning!

I punched a piece of white cardstock with the 5-petal fower punch and adhered it to the inside of the card front then adhered a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock behind that - both of these show through the cut out flower shape. Finally I punched a circle of Pumpkin Pie cardstock and adhered it to the centre of the flower on the cardfront, finishing it off with an adhesive pearl.


Recipe:
Stamps - Fresh Cuts
Ink - Pumpkin Pie
Card - Fresh Cuts notecards/Pumpkin Pie
Other - 5-petal punch/1/2 inch circle punch/adhesive pearl


I love the monochromatic look of these cards - so simple and striking, so I made a few in different colourways. From left to right: Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive.




Then I stepped it up a bit and used the front of the notecare for this next card. This was my attempt for the last Colour Combo Challenge over on In Love With Stamping - Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant and Taken with Teal.



Another new addition is the oval stamp from a set of 4 stamps that fit inside two new oval punches! This time I adhered some Elegant Eggplant cardstock to the rear side of the stamped image, then paper peirced around the petals. The flowers in the centre are stamped with the small flower from the set and joined with a brad. I sponged the edges of the card and paper with distress ink and distressed the edges with a paper distresser.

Recipe:
Stamps - Fresh Cuts/All Ovals
Ink - Old Olive/Elegant Eggplant/Antique Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)
Card/Paper - Whisper White/Taken with Teal/Elegant Eggplant/Old Olive
Other - scalloped and plain oval punches/Elegant Eggplant ribbon/buttons/crafter's tool kit/paper distresser/Old Olive brad

Thanks so much for visiting and I hope everyone has a great weekend - our boiler has broken down so we have no heating and no hot water til at least Monday! Can I come round for a bath lol ?!!!

Zingy flowers

How about something zingy on a very dull and damp day? I love this stamp set...how many flowers have you seen with bright pink stems though! Don't you love artistic licence!

I used Only Orange and Pink Passion markers to colour the stamp (Live Your Dream) and stamped the background with the Polka Dot backgrounder with Pink Passion. As we don't have Pink Passion ribbon I coloured some Whisper White grosgrain ribbon with the Pink Passion marker et voila.... perfect match!! I added some stickles to the flower centres and used the paper piercer to pierce around the edges.

Recipe

Stamps - Live Your Dream/Circle of Friendship/Polka Dot backgrounder
Ink - Only Orange/Pink Passion (markers)
Card - Whisper White/Only Orange/Pink Passion
Other - white grosgrain ribbon/crafter's tool kit/buttons/embroidery floss/circle punches/stickles

Thanks for visiting today!

Chickies

Just a quick post today - an Easter card I made for a friend to give to her sister. I was feeling all spring-like but what's happened to the weather now? Back to winter apparently- bleah!

Recipe:
Stamps - Chick Trio (Elzybells NA from Amuse)/Seasonal Wishes (SU)
Ink - Memento black
Card/Papers - Bashful Blue/So Saffron/So Saffron DSP (All SU)
Other - Bashful Blue ribbon (SU)/blue brads/petite oval nestabilities/Copic markers

See ya soon I hope!

thank you!

I wanted to say a big thank you to Sara and Alex for nominating me for this award -


I'd love to give this back to them both as they are so supportive of my blog but I don't think I can do that so instead I'll pass it on to the following lovely ladies. Thank you gals - love y'all!

1) Kim
2)Steph
3)Carole
4)Jo
5)Mandy
6)Dawn
7)Bekka
8)Aimes

lotsa circles

The Inspiration and Themes challenge over on In Love with Stamping yesterday was 'circles' - and these cards are what I came up with for it. I hadn't used my Seeing Spots stamp set much and fell in love with this colour combination - Real Red, So Saffron and Tempting Turquoise - so played around and made three different cards.

The first one is based on an old Taylor Van Bruggen sketch - the turqouise panels were embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. I stamped the thank you circles in Real Red then used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to position the flower stamp inside.



For the second one I used the same circle and flower stamps and again punched out the circles with the 1 1/4 inch and 1 3/8 inch circle punches.



For the last one I used the solid flower stamp from the set and used the scallop circle punch for the middle circle. I again rounded the bottom corners with the corner rounder punch.

So there we are - a whole lotta circles and a cheery colour combo on such a dreary day to boot!! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend with plenty of stamping!

Recipe -
Stamps - Seeing Spots
Ink - Real Red/Tempting Turquoise/So Saffron
Card/paper - Real Red/Tempting Turquoise/So Saffron/Le jardin papers
Other - corner rounder punch/circle punches - 1 inch, 1 1/4 inch, 1 3/8/scallop circle punch/ crafter's tool kit/ swiss dots embossing folder/ brads/Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

Papertrey card

Here's a peek at a card I've posted over on A Passion for Papertrey.... along with my eulogy to Raspberry Fizz!

weekend sketches

Happy Monday! I hope a good weekend was had by all! On Saturday I treated myself to one of life's pleasures - a morning spent drifting around a bookshop. Somebody once said you have never have too many shoes. For me you can never have enough books.

What a wonderful few hours, with mellow tunes in the background and soft leather chairs to kick back on, to flick through exquisite collections of photography, design, cookery, art and everything else in between.. heaven. I just wish there was time in life to read them all!




I didn't get to do any sketches over the weekend but here are three cards from sketches I made two weekends ago. I used the Pocket Silhouettes set and Sweet Always papers for all three.








This was for Taylor's sketch - I went for a shabby, patchwork to match the sketch. Firstly adhering the paper panels then sewing them. The messy stitching was intentional by the way!

Recipe:

Stamps - Pocket Silhouettes

Ink - Chocolate Chip

Card/Paper - Whisper White/Chocolate Chip/Sweet Always DSP

Other - linen thread/buttons/circle nestabilities/sewing machine

Next up one of Julie's Mojo sketches - these are always fabulous. All the squares were cut with nestabilites. I paper pierced along the white panesl and again messily stitched around the card.

Recipe:
Stamps - Pocket Silhouettes
Ink - Chocolate Chip
Card/Paper - Whisper White/Chocolate Chip/Regal Rose/Sweet Always DSP
Other - crafter's tool kit/circle punch/brad/square nestabilities/sewing machine/chocolate chip ribbon






And finally Amy's sketch - I loved this one, it came together so easily. Again I paper peirced around the white panels. The flowers were stamped with one of the stamps from the One of a Kind set, and punched out with the matching Boho Blossoms punch.Pink brads were added to their centres and popped them up on dimensionals.





Recipe:
Stamps - Pocket Silhouettes/One of a kind
Ink - Chocolate Chip
Card/Paper - Whisper White/Chocolate Chip/Sweet Always DSP
Other - Regal Rose ribbon/pink brads/crafter's tool kit/rectangle nestabilities/boho blossoms punch/sewing machine/scallop edge punch

Thanks for stopping by today!