Camping in The Great Outdoors

I made this masculine card on Friday evening when I was lucky enough to be invited to stamp with some friends. Angela, the hostess, had kindly prepared a Make & Take for us, which I had intended to follow slavishly, but I fell at the first hurdle (paper trimmer accident!) and came up with this very similar card instead. It’s for a friend’s son, who spends a lot of time camping with the Scouts.  I love that you can use the Fringe Scissors to add interest without femininity.

Inside the card, I stamped a row of ants – because camping wouldn’t be camping without the addition of wildlife. 

Talking of camping, my son spent the other night in the summer house (that’s a shed, not a coastal retreat!) with his friend. All sources of flame were removed as a precaution, but they did cook their own breakfast on a camp stove the following morning. Apparently, as “glamping” goes, it was warm, comfortable, and the neighbour’s cockerels didn’t wake them up early. Success!

133035	131264	134180	126560	131174	126979
101406	121685	133674	106577	106576	106549
102845	133325	119869	134365	104199	122941

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Weekly Deals

Oops is it Wednesday already? Nearly Thursday in fact? That’s because I’m off work this week so time is flying and I have no idea what day it is!

We’ve not gone away, just spending time doing odd jobs and odd trips out. So far we’ve done Bakewell Market (and the lovely Lavender Tea Rooms (if you’re ever in Bakewell, do go – it has to be seen to be appreciated), a trip into Derby for art supplies for my daughter and today, excitement of the week, shoe shopping. I have bought some rather unpleasant-looking trainers which I am assured will be far more supportive for my plantar fasciitis-ridden feet and, in time, help to make the pain go away. Fingers (but not toes) crossed!

So that’s how it happened to be Wednesday evening already. It’s a bit late in the day for a project, so here are the Weekly Deals and come back tomorrow morning for a masculine card. If I had to choose just one item from this week’s Deals, I’d go for that Hexagon Thinlits Die as I’ve seen some really cool projects made with it.

I will be ordering on 1st August so, if you want to tag onto my order and save postage, shout up quickly please! And shout up even quicker if you want one of the remaining places in my Virtual Hostess Club.  Details are here.  

Weekly Deals

127010	128980	133000	121807
127758	126158	129977	132965

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Tap Tap Tap - new favourite set?

I have LOADS of projects to show you but I will confess now that I didn’t make most of them as two of my team helpfully stepped in to boost the samples table! But they’re fabulous projects which deserve to be seen so I hope you’ll forgive me. Also if something is CASEd and I don’t give credit; because I didn’t make them, I don’t know which are originals and which are inspired by other talented stampers. 

Big thanks to my downline Donna Taplin for the first of several fabulous Tap, Tap, Tap samples. We are both very excited that the Spiral Border punch is back in the catalogue - and I’m relieved that I didn’t get rid of it when it retired last time. I just KNEW it would come in handy one day!

Everybody is loving this Tap, Tap, Tap set. It’s a classic example of peer pressure. I hadn’t looked at it twice when first browsing the catalogue but, on a demonstrator forum in the US, lots of people were raving about it. So I took a look and could suddenly see the possibilities. Birthday cards for all my newspaper colleagues, for a start. In my first job as a reporter I had to use a typewriter just like this. I used to type out stories then, if I wanted to swap something around, I’d cut up the paper, re-organise the paragraphs and glue them to another sheet, before sending them up to the typesetters. The original “cut and paste”! 

134204	126981	126966
131286	133704	106550
119872	135638	130916

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Caturday: Moxley/Maggie

This is little Moxley, soon to be renamed Maggie. Maggie has been reserved by my friend and downline Kelly, after Kelly visited the cat shelter with her family on fundraiser day. As soon as Maggie reached out to Kelly with her paw, to ask to be stroked, the deal was done!

CASEing Convention project - Kinda Eclectic

I kept seeing this card design on US demonstrator blogs, like this one… then realised it’s one of the Make & Takes from Convention. So credit for the design goes to Stampin’ Up!®

I decided to have a go at one of my own, tweaking it to adjust to my supplies. I couldn’t find my Linen Thread (don’t you find it’s always going missing?) so compromised by using single strands from some Burlap ribbon. I actually like it better; more fibrous, thicker and easier to fashion into those circle shapes which are so popular right now. 

The original had a butterfly on it but, by the time I’d borrowed the large butterfly punch from my friend Alison, I’d got used to the card without it and couldn’t think where to put it!

I love using embossing folders in this way and it was a real “Wow” the first time I demoed it. All you do is apply ink directly to the folder (I usually use a brayer) and then “stamp” it down onto your paper. You won’t get a perfect impression but the shabby chic look is exactly what you’re aiming for. Also, you can get two different effects by inking different sides of the folder.  Don’t forget to rinse your embossing folder under the tap afterwards!

(Don’t tell the designers at SU, but I think I like my version better!)

133685	133787	135350	131174
133643	133645	133705	121685
106549	132140	119246	129378

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com