Peaceful Place squirrel

I do love this little squirrel from Peaceful Place - I've stamped him onto Wood Textures DSP for a different look. The background is Hardwood and I've used the Layered Leaves embossing folder down the side for a bit of extra interest. 

Oh, and Artisan Textures around the edge of the card, and a tiny greeting from Waterfront. Yes, it's product heavy but if you've got it, use it!

Animal Outing cart

How cute are these animals? I must have another play with this stamp set, which I confess I haven’t used since creating the projects for my OnStage Telford display.

I used the Wood Crate Framelits to make the cart, which I stamped in Real Red with the Hardwood background stamp.  The handle is just a strip of Night of Navy cardstock with a punched circle folded in half to make a handle. As for the animals, they’re propped up like this...

There are three narrow strips of cardstock running along the inside, so the animals can be stuck onto the front and create the 3D effect. It was such a fun project to make - hope you like it!

Celebrating 10 years with the new Rooted in Nature stamp set

How amazing is this? My downline Tracey has just celebrated her 10th anniversary as a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator. Tracey joined not long after I did, and I’m so happy she chose me as her upline. I remember her sitting in my kitchen, testing out the rubber stamps and being really impressed by the quality. It’s fantastic that she’s stuck around for so long. Congratulations, Tracey!

To help her celebrate, I sent her a gift and this card, which uses one of my favourite new stamp sets, Rooted in Nature. I teamed it with the Hardwood background stamp and the new Artisan Textures stamp set to distress the edges.

Some flowers from Best Birds give the project a pop of colour, and the Champagne Foil die-cut word adds some celebratory bling.

Waterfront with Sweet Sugarplum

Today pink mountains... and come back Friday for orange trees. What is happening to me?

This card is a timely reminder that Sweet Sugarplum is due to retire at the end of May as it is part of the 2016-18 In Color collection. In Colors are always the first items to sell out, and Sweet Sugarplum has been the most popular colour from this batch, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Waterfront should be around until the end of May, while supplies last but still, if you really want it, I personally wouldn’t delay as that too has been really popular.

Window Box Thinlits Easter Basket

How cute is this project? It’s made with the Window Box Thinlits – just slice off the top of the hexagon and move to the opposite side, as shown below. Yes, exactly the same method as for this project except this time you only need one die-cut piece instead of the usual two. 

I CASEd the idea from Libbystamps, improvising with the flower dies I already head, Botanical Builder Framelits. You don’t have to have the exact supplies to CASE a project; just use what you have. Although I have to say, these Window Box Thinlits dies are extremely versatile, as you’ll see over the coming days...

Best Birds birdhouse

Last Friday was my much-anticipated Best Birds workshop, in which we played with the brand new Best Birds bundle and the Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper stack.

This was the main project, designed by my friend Kelly for the occasion, although this particular one was recreated by me so that we could have two samples on the go, one for each crafty table.

It’s a time-consuming project, but not particularly difficult. It helps that the mini birdhouses (from Poundland, I’ll let you guess the price) are already Mint Macaron, although they were also available in grey.

What wasn’t great was having to do all that die-cutting! Six twigs per birdhouse, plus others for other projects was quite time-consuming; in the end I did them so that people could get on with their projects.

Top tip 1: Photopolymer stamps are extremely flexible, which can be an advantage as it gives you options to play with the images. However, when you are die-cutting the image, it’s important to place the stamp on the block in the correct manner, or the die won’t fit around it neatly. We overcame this by laying the stamp on top of the die, then pressing the block onto it.

Top tip 2: There is a die for the little flower but, when you’re cutting nine for one project, plus extras for additional projects, it’s actually quicker to fussy-cut them!

Top tip 3: To get the circle die-cut out of the front piece of cardstock in exactly the right place, we held the piece over the birdhouse, stamped side down, and rubbed firmly around the edge of the hole, rather like brass-rubbing. This gave a faint impression of the circle, which could then be outlined with a pencil to provide a guide for die placement.

Best Birds Photopolymer Bundle [142315] £38.50	Hardwood Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133035] £13.00	Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper Stack [141642] £9.00	Soft Suede A4 Card Stock [119982] £7.25	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £8.25
Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock [138344] £7.25	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978] £6.00	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [138326] £6.00	Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad [141397] £6.00	Blender Pens [102845] £9.00
Flirty Flamingo 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon [141426] £7.25	Fringe Scissors [133325] £9.00	Layering Circle Framelits Dies [141705] £32.00

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Around the World Blog Hop: Showcasing new stamp sets

I returned from my holiday last week to learn that another Around the World Blog Hop was planned, and the topic was “new stamp sets”. Fortunately I’d taken some crafting supplies away with me so I could have a quiet stamping day, and had just the project up my sleeve already, which was lucky as otherwise I wouldn’t have had time to play along. 

I’m glad I could join in as it’s always a pleasure to work with such a talented group of ladies from around the world, and it’s lovely to welcome blog visitors old and new. So whether it’s your first or 91st visit, thank you for dropping by. Maybe you’ve joined me from Martha’s blog, or maybe you’ve happened upon this page by chance; whatever route you’ve taken, I hope you continue on to the rest of the tour.  And I hope you like my creation, which uses the new hostess set, Love You Lots. 

Regular visitors will know that this is just about all I have so far from the new catalogue, as I didn’t go mad on the pre-order. But my BIG order arrived this week and hopefully I will get time to play along SOON.

For this project, I stamped the elephant and mouse in Black Stazon and painted them using Crumb Cake ink from the lid of my ink pad. I then stamped both animals again on very thin scrap paper (well, a receipt, I was on holiday so supplies were limited!) and used this to create a mask which I attached using Tombow (if you allow it to dry it becomes a temporary adhesive). 

Masks in place, I then began to add the colour, by loading up my paintbrush and simply tapping it to create splashes across the watercolour paper. The results were a little unpredictable, but at least the masks were there to protect my elephant and little mouse.

The greeting is stamped on watercolour paper, too, with the long thin strip stamp (bet you wondered what that was for!) in Mint Macaron and the word on top in Night of Navy. 

Hope you like! Thanks again for visiting: please now pay a visit to Miriam. But if you get lost, don’t worry, the full list of participating blogs is here, too: 

Julie Davison (United States)
Martha Lucia Gomez (United States)
Helen Read (United Kingdom) (that’s me!)
Miriam van Eyden (The Netherlands) 
Anke Hämsch (Germany) 
Barbara Meyer (Austria) 
Liz Goldhawk (Canada - English)
Cécile Ortiz (France)

Mix It Up Monday: Barnyard Babies with Hardwood

Happy Monday everyone! I’m back from a glorious week in the Lake District. And I’m not just saying that because the folks back in Derby were shivering under grey skies. It really was stunning (sorry!) – the best we’ve ever known it, and we’ve been going for 20+ years!

But I won’t keep rubbing it in (unlike all that suncream I needed to use!), because right now there are more pressing matters to hand… namely Mix It Up Monday and a new set of In Color charts to wade through. There are 50 of them this year so there’s no time to waste.

Today I’m playing with Peekaboo Peach… actually, I’m going to stop right there and say that despite my best efforts, I cannot keep saying “Peekaboo Peach” out loud. It’s a ridiculous name, possibly the worst since the old days of “Yoyo Yellow”. 

But I have the perfect solution, which came to me as I was labelling up my new ink pad. I always take one of the translated labels from the bottom of the ink pad and stick that on the other end, so that no matter which way I store my pads, there’s still a strip of colour showing. I choose the translation that’s closest to the English, or the one that amuses me most. For P. Peach, I chose the French: “Pêche Fraîche”. Now isn’t that a much nicer name? No unnecessary alliteration, just a pleasing rhyme. 

So from now on, in my workshops, that In Color known as Peekaboo Peach will be known as Pêche Fraîche…  

I hope you like my Pêche Fraîche card. I haven’t used a new stamp set because my big order hasn’t arrived yet, but I thought the contented cow looked quite happy on her Pêche Fraîche background, surrounded by that must-have background stamp: Hardwood. 

I have a little confession to make: I didn’t really use the new Layering Circles Dies on this card as I don’t have them (yet). But I figured that it’s better to show you a product that’s available than one that’s not, and really the size of the circle isn’t that crucial, so just use whatever circle die or punch you have that fits the bill. 

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

Barnyard Babies Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139328] £17.00	Hardwood Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133035] £13.00	Timeless Textures Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140517] £18.00	Tin Of Cards Photopolymer Stamp Set [138946] £15.00	In The Meadow Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140754] £18.00
Layering Circle Framelits Dies [141705] £32.00	Peekaboo Peach Classic Stampin' Pad [141398] £6.00	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978] £6.00	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [126974] £6.00	Peekaboo Peach A4 Cardstock [141422] £7.25
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550] £7.25	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock [121686] £6.50	Blender Pens [102845] £9.00	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] £7.25	Peekabo Peach 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon [141427] £7.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Oh My Goodies gift voucher card

For a couple of weeks now I’ve been rapidly trying to use products which I suspect will retire. As we now have the retiring list, I can see if my predictions were correct or not. 

I was right about Oh My Goodies – both stamps and dies are retiring. Fortunately I was wrong about Hardwood, as I find that such a useful background stamp. It never even crossed my mind that the Itty Bitty Accents punches would go, so I’m gutted about those, as I use them all the time. 

Other items on the list below which are retiring are the white jute ribbon (which I’ve stranded here on the front of the card) and the burlap ribbon (which I’ve stranded inside) but I wouldn’t worry too much about the latter... just sayin’.

This is a gift voucher card ordered by a customer for her friend, another customer, who was reaching a milestone birthday. Shall we call it 30, to be polite? 

It’s a total CASE of Sabine’s card, but adapted to suit my supplies.  The spatters are partly created with Timeless Textures, but also with a toothbrush dipped in the ink on the lid of my Tip Top Taupe ink pad, and flicked across the cardstock. Fun! I forgot to add the sponge to the supplies list but I also sponged around the front banner, to age it a little. 

Here’s a link to the retiring list, but please don’t rely on it if you’ve downloaded it, as items are selling out daily. Check the link before placing your order as it will be updated every evening. Look for the Xs in the right hand column – these are items which have sold out. And there are lots of them already!

Oh My Goodies Clear-Mount Bundle [140253] £32.25	Hardwood Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133035] £13.00	Timeless Textures Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140517] £18.00	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack [133787] £15.50
Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock [138343] £6.50	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky [131292] £6.50	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £7.25	White 1-1/4" (3.2 Cm) Jute Ribbon [137904] £8.25
Rhinestone Basic Jewels Embellishments [119246] £4.50	1-1/4" Burlap Ribbon [132140] £7.25	3/4" Circle Punch [119873] £11.50	Punch Corner Project Life [135346] £7.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com