Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Today is Kelly’s birthday! Be sure to pop over to her blog and wish her a happy day.

She is so talented that it was daunting making her a card, I can tell you. So I made a joy fold card as I hadn’t seen her make one of those. Can you imagine my face when I popped round to deliver it and she showed me her latest creation: a joy fold card!!!!! So I kind of wish I could be there when she opens this.

I’ve made a few joy fold cards before, and have described how to make them here. But I’ve taken a photo of the inside, too, so you can see what it looks like.

To make this, I used Greenhouse Garden, some lovely blues and purples and lots of stamping off, to mute the shades.

Stamps: Greenhouse Garden, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla

Ink: Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue, Bashful Blue, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Pale Plum

Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Sweet treats for kids' birthdays

This fun set makes great cards even without the treat cups – although I have to admit, I think the treat cups add something special.

I stamped these using my little-used Bold Brights inks and cardstock (and Summer Sun, from the Earth Elements family) – thought I’d better make the most of them before they’re gone forever.

They’re great fun and just what I needed for all those children’s birthdays this month and next.

Stamps: Sweet Treats

Cardstock: Only Orange, Glorious Green, Very Vanilla, Summer Sun

Ink: Real Red, Summer Sun, Glorious Green, Lovely Lilac, Real Red, Basic Gray

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Real Red

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Mountain scene

It’s hubby’s birthday in a few days but I know he won’t be checking my blog so it’s safe to post his card. Men can be tricky but not if you get Lovely As A Tree – I’ve used it over and over again for masculine cards, as well as for Christmas cards and much more.

Out came the brayer for this one as I wanted to create an alpine mountain scene. So about a million torn post-it notes later, I came up with this.

I masked the mountains and brayered the sky using Bashful Blue. Then I masked the mountains again, this time masking the tops of them and chalked below using a combination of Going Grey and Certainly Celery.

Then I just stamped the trees on top, stamping off to get paler trees, too.

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, A Bit of Birthday Cheer

Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Whisper White

Ink: Certainly Celery, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue

Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels, Scallop Edge Punch, Stitched Ribbon – Bashful, Brayer

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Giraffe card

This was Dave’s card, to match his gift box. Did you guess correctly? His gift was his very own lime green mankini!

This is a tri-shutter card, also known as a tri-fold card. They’re really easy to make, honest! Here’s a link to one I made before. I have managed to adjust the measurements to suit A4 cardstock but don’t have time right now to dig them out – sorry!

Stamps: Animal Stories, Happy Everything

Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Paper: Spiced Cider

Ink: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Accessories: Striped Grosgrain Ribbon – Old Olive, Chocolate Chip button, linene thread, Earth Elements brads

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Elephant box

When a man turns 40, he deserves a very special present, wrapped up in a special box. I don’t think I can bring myself to tell you what was in this box for our friend Dave... but feel free to guess and I may reveal the answer in a few days.

The box is the same one as this, but in different colours. You can't see it too well in the photo but I stamped the spiral from Trendy Trees on a sheet of Sahara Sand cardstock using Versamark®. Isn’t it great to think that in October we’ll be able to buy a Sahara Sand inkpad to go with this gorgeous cardstock?

I cut a curve on a strip of Old Olive cardstock, then cut the little strips by hand. Laborious, eh?

I tied the ribbon and trimmed it as normal – then couldn’t believe my eyes when I realised I’d cut the ribbon at the wrong angle – well, I’d done one end with the “V” pointing towards the knot, and one with it pointing out. It looked like a fish! But there are no mistakes in rubber stamping, remember, so I tightened the knot a little and trimmed again so that both ends matched. 

Stamps: Animal Stories, Trendy Trees

Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Ink: Really Rust

Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Chocolate Chip, Wide Striped Grosgrain Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Carousel bag

This final Carousel Notes project is another one blatantly copied from Kelly. Again, I don’t know how she managed to make her ribbon handles stand up – I just have to face facts; she is a genius and I am not.

For this, you need two So Saffron Carousel Notes, each with 3cm cut off the bottom. Save the bits – you can use these another day!

Take a piece of Designer Series Paper, measuring 15cm x 5.5cm and stick it to the bottom of one of your notes. You will have to cut carefully around the scallops by hand – Stampin’ Up!’s Paper Snips are perfect for this.

Cover the edge of the DSP with a strip of Chocolate Chip cardstock – again cut around the scallop by hand. You can do it using the ¾” circle punch but, to be honest, it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Add the eyelets; to get them in the right place, rest them on the Carousel Note in position and press them down hard. This will leave an indentation as a guide.

Now you need to make the box. Use a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock measuring 26cm x 10.5cm and score along the length at 3cm. Now rest the long edge along the bottom of your grid paper and score vertically at 9.5cm, 12.5cm, 22cm and 25cm. This will give you a box with a 9.5cm wide front and back, and 3cm wide sides. Assemble the box in the usual manner.

Now rest your box on the inside of one of your Carousel Notes and make a pencil mark at the top edge. Don’t worry, nobody will see it. Repeat on the other note. Thread your ribbon through the eyelets and down beyond the pencil mark. Stick it down firmly. Sticky Strip is ideal as it’s very strong.

Finally, attach the Carousel Notes to the box to create the bag. The notes and the box will sandwich the ribbon, so that no cut ends are shown (not like on my version as I hadn’t worked that bit out when I made it!).

Stamps: Sweet Pea

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip

Paper: Animal Stories

Ink: Rose Red, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Carousel Notes, Jumbo Eyelets, Satin ribbon – Chocolate Chip, White Gel Pen

All products by Stampin' Up!®

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Carousel Notes card

For this project I have to thank my talented downline, Kelly. Click here to see the project that I blatantly copied. I don’t know how she got hers to stand up because, as soon as I added the brads and ribbon, mine toppled over to the left. Hence the addition of a button for balance!

To make this card, you will need two Mellow Moss Carousel Notes. Decorate one of them and then score (just one of them!) at about 3cm-3.5cm from the left edge; the measurement really isn’t that crucial this time.

The rest is self-explanatory. Use a Crop-A-Dile™ to set the eyelets and tie some ribbon through. Stamp and layer your image and add a button, if necessary, for balance. I would try standing it up first – some of the ladies at my classes didn’t need a button to make theirs stand up.

Stamps: Bird on a Branch, Tiny Tags

Cardstock: Whisper White, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron

Ink: So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red

Accessories: Carousel Notes, Jumbo Eyelets, Chocolate Chip button, Word Window Punch

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Carousel pocket card

This is a very simple idea but probably the Carousel Notes project which gave the most trouble. Again squaring your Carousel Note up against two edges of the grid paper, score at 3.5cm from the edge on THREE sides.  This time cut away the two corner pieces – they’re almost heart-shaped – and then fold the sides in and the front edge up, sticking them down to create a pouch.

To make the Chocolate Chip feature at the top of the insert, punch a Scallop Oval from cardstock and then fold in half. Punch a hole on the crease and poke a piece of ribbon through.

We made a pocket card but you could easily use such a pouch for a small gift, baby announcement or a gift card.

Stamps: Tiny Tags

Cardstock: Rose Red, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Designer Series Paper – Patterns, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red

Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Chocolate Chip

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Little chocolate box

So... the Carousel Notes class at last! I will post the instructions for all four projects over the next few days. Note to demonstrators: it is not a good idea to do these four projects at a class – we ran WAY over time and three would have been plenty.  If you make all four of the Carousel Notes projects I am posting, you will use half a pack and one of the envelopes. So I will now be looking for envelope projects!

This box is really quite simple – but the problem with Carousel Notes is that they are circular, so you really have to pay attention to make sure you score in the right place. You need:

1 Pretty in Pink Carousel Note

16.5cm square of Chocolate Chip cardstock

First take your square of Chocolate Chip cardstock and score it at 5cm from each edge. Make four cuts: see diagram for where to cut – you cut along the solid lines and score along the dotted lines. You are not cutting any cardstock away, just making cuts.

After stamping your Carousel Note, place it on a piece of grid paper, making sure it is “square” up to the edges (not easy with a round piece of cardstock). You will notice, however, that you can make two scallops sit on the bottom edge and two butt up to the side. If you do this, all will become easier. You need to score from the left edge at about 4cm in – we counted the scallops, so that eight of them were at the left of the score line. Hope that makes sense. Score at the same distance from the right edge, then again from the top and bottom edges.

You will see that you have the same pattern of score lines as on your Chocolate Chip piece. Make four cuts in the same places.

Now you can assemble the box and lid. Fold along the score lines, folding in the same direction each time. For the Chocolate Chip base, make sure that the largest flap is on the outside, hiding the fact that the inside flaps don’t meet. The lid is more straightforward; just fold them in and adhere.

You’re almost there – just tie a length of Chocolate Chip ribbon around the whole thing and knot. The small tags are just glued on underneath the knot.

Stamps: Bird on a Branch, Tiny Tags

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Carousel Notes, Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, Jewelry Tag punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Teal gift voucher

Want to buy a gift for a crafty friend but don’t know what to get? Or, more likely, can’t remember what they already have? How about a Stampin’ Up!® gift voucher. I can make these in any denomination and the card comes free!

Here’s one for Rachel, whose favourite colour is Taken With Teal. It’s not one of my faves but I valiantly had a go!

I coloured the Pretties Kit flower with a Taken With Teal reinker, painted on with the Aquapainter. Actually it was slightly watered down as I’d used it for a project the other week – more about that another time as although it went spectacularly well, it got spectacularly broken before I could photograph it!

Anyway, I then sprayed the flower with some shimmer mist spray, made from isopropyl alcohol, water and a few drops of Champagne Mist shimmer paint. You can’t see it on the photo but I hope that Rachel likes it!

Stamps: Very Vintage wheel

Cardstock: Taken with Teal, Handsome Hunter, Whisper White, Vellum cardstock

Ink: Handsome Hunter

Accessories: Pretties Kit flower, clear rhinestone brads, Boho Blossoms punch, Eyelet Border Punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

How do you like your eggs in the morning...?

This one was brewing in my head for a while so I just had to have a go. In case it’s not obvious (and I fear it isn’t), it’s supposed to be an egg frying in a pan on a campfire. I will send it to a scouting friend.

Here’s how I made it:

Using a Close to Cocoa marker, I hand-drew the woodgrain on some scraps of Close to Cocoa cardstock. Then I hand cut rough log shapes and inked the edges slightly with the edge of the marker.

To make the flames, used the Large Oval Punch, punching once, then sticking the oval to scrap paper and punching again to create the flame shape. Boring, frankly, so in the end I gave up and cut some of them freehand!

The rest is self-explanatory, although I did get in a bit of a mess trying to work out where the Basic Gray layer would go to represent the bottom of the pan. I actually stuck it to the treat cup this time – if anyone wants the fried egg they will have to take the card apart ... or go and buy a pack.

Talking of fried eggs, you can normally only buy them in a mixed bag of Haribos, so I was very excited to find a small pack of just fried eggs in a pound shop. And even better – and rather confusingly – they were only 50p!

Stamps: Something Sweet

Cardstock: Only Orange, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa\, Very Vanilla

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Basic Gray

Accessories: 1 ¾” circle punch, treat cups, large oval punch, scallop oval punch

All products by Stampin' Up!®

A sweet treat

Our calendar is packed with birthdays at the end of August and beginning of September, many of them for children, mostly boys. So I borrowed the Something Sweet stamp set from my downline Kelly and got to work, doing my best to use up lots of retiring cardstock.

Naturally, now I wish I owned the stamp set, and have barely dented my retiring cardstock supplies!

Here’s one of my efforts – a gumball machine card.  I kept to a limited colour scheme because I already had these kiwi jelly beans, which just happen to be Green Galore!

Don't forget that this stamp set is currently on special offer at 20% off! Normally £23.95, during August you can purchase it for just £19.16. As well as the gumball machine, it features a jelly bean, bubble gum, petal and leaf, fish, a handle (more on that tomorrow). Can't remember what else off the top of my head, but have a look in your Mini catalogue to see the full set. And to see the full list of special offer sets, please click here. 

Stamps: Something Sweet

Cardstock: Real Red, Green Galore, Very Vanilla

Ink: Real Red, Green Galore

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, 1 ¾” circle punch, treat cups, 5/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Real Red

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Thanks in a hurry

We needed some thank you cards in a hurry – and they needed to be (nearly) all the same. So out came the scraps of Pink Flamingo paper, the oval punches and ribbon and here they are. Simples!

Stamps: Oval All

Cardstock: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Real Red

Paper: Pink Flamingo

Ink: Basic Gray, Summer Sun, Real Red

Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, Striped Grosgrain Ribbon  - Real Red, blender pens

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Vintage box

The final project for our Vintage Vogue class was this little box. It’s very easy to make but I’ve posted the template below to save me having to explain!

The most exciting thing about this box is the rather fabulous flower. I got the idea for this from a UK demonstrator called Marlene – not sure if she invented it or not. If it was you, please leave a comment and I’ll give you proper credit.

To make the flower, please see Marlene’s instructions at her blog, here. They are posted on 3^rd May; unfortunately I can’t work out how to link directly to that post.

Stamps: Vintage Vogue

Cardstock: Ruby Red, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Ink: Ruby Red, Soft Suede

Accessories: Large Oval punch, Extra Large Two-Step bird punch, Eyelet border punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Vintage Vogue, faded flowers

So, with the teacher gifts out of the way, here’s another of the Vintage Vogue projects we made at the class recently. It’s a total and utter copy of a card made by a US demonstrator called Dawn Olchefske. She used Soft Suede with a colour we don’t have, so I swapped it for Ruby Red and Soft Suede – a mix of the old (retiring Ruby Red) and the new (incoming Soft Suede).

The card base is Confetti White, which has lovely “bits” in it. We stamped off (ie stamped on scrap paper first) with Ruby Red and Soft Suede and the two flowers from Vintage Vogue. The rest is self-explanatory, although you probably can’t tell that the main image is popped up on dimensionals.

Stamps: Vintage Vogue

Cardstock: Confetti White, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla

Ink: Ruby Red, Soft Suede

Accessories: Kraft taffeta ribbon

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Last teacher tin card...

More funky background papers from Pink Flamingo – I will be sad to see this go, assuming that it retires at the end of September, as most (if not all) Designer Series Papers do.

The flower is a mini version of the distressed paper flower that everyone is making at the moment. I just made a smaller version using the Boho Blossoms punch.

Stamps: My Sweet Pea

Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Whisper White

Paper: Pink Flamingo

Ink: Tempting Turquoise

Accessories: Boho Blossoms punch, rhinestone brads, Tempting Turquoise  Grosgrain Ribbon

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

20% off selected two-step stamp sets!

Here’s a fantastic offer for August, which will please cardmakers and scrapbookers alike!

We all love a discount and, this month, you can buy selected stamps at 20% off! What's the catch? There isn't one!

The stamps are as follows:

Loads of Love – normally £18.95, offer price £15.16

Big Bold Birthday – normally £23.95, offer price £19.16

Trendy Trees – normally £12.95, offer price £10.36

Greenhouse Garden – normally £22.95, offer price £18.36

Something Sweet – normally £23.95, offer price £19.16

Tiny Tags – normally £18.95, offer price £15.16

Bird on a Branch – normally £14.95, offer price £11.96

Now I know that quite a few of you already have Bird on a Branch, Trendy Trees or Tiny Tags as they are three of my favourite sets! But there is still lots for you to choose from in this month's offer. Greenhouse Garden is beautiful and will make elegant, floral projects. Something Sweet is that really fun set from the Mini catalogue which goes with the Treat Cups - ideal for children's cards or for when you want to "wow" somebody. Loads of Love I have only recently purchased and it's really fun - you can change the contents of the truck to suit the occasion - and it's handy for masculine cards, too. Big Bold Birthday would be great for scrapbooking, children's cards, general birthdays... it's a fun, bold set, ideal for speedy stamping.

So please get in touch if you’d like to place an order.