Golden wedding anniversary card... and out of my comfort zone!

Ha! Bet you never thought you’d see a card like this at All Things Stampy, eh? Not my usual style at all, is it? And, I have to confess, it was really hard to do, even though I was practically CASEing this project by Heidi Weaver. 

I tried using the spiral flower die to create the flowers from vellum but, of course, the vellum was too stiff. So I dug out some filter paper and tried again… but got in a terrible mess and ended up burning my thumb with the hot glue gun (that hurts!) 

Eventually I settled on simply punching out the filter paper and scrunching it up to create flowers. Happily I had exactly three tiny brads left, and just one gold sequin from an old kit, so could hold the flowers together easily. 

I don’t think I’ll be doing it again in a hurry, but then 50th wedding anniversaries don’t come around that often, so I think I’m safe. The alphabet dies are retired, by the way; I don’t make a habit of using retired products but these are too useful to get rid of and too perfect not to use. 

Something To Say Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134180]	Ovals Collection Framelits Die [129381]	Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [133520]	1-1/4" Circle Punch [119861]
Pansy Punch [130698]	Builder Bird Punch [117191]	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack [133787]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]
White Filter Paper [129393]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Gold Glimmer Paper [133719]	Gold Foil Sheets [132622]
Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688]	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490]	Tea Lace Paper Doilies [129399]	Silver Mini Brads [122941]
Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die [127553]

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You're On My Mind... but not in a creepy way

When I saw this set of words in the new catalogue, I knew I’d have to have them and I had the perfect opportunity to use them recently, for a friend who is having a tough time. I knew the slightly cheeky saying would put a smile on her face. 

Every now and again I take a look at my stamp collection (and I know you know exactly which type of stamp collection I mean, because philately gets you nowhere) to see what’s missing. And I don’t mean which ones are lost in the depths of my downline Alison’s craft room (*cough cough* can I have Awesomely Artistic back please?). I mean, am I short of anything, such as “thank you” stamps, or flowers, or masculine images. The missing element has, for some time, been “big words” so this was something I addressed when ordering from the new catalogue. Hence this set. 

The great thing about big words is that you can concentrate on fun background techniques, or let some gorgeous Designer Series Paper take centre stage, or simply play around with pretty punches, as I’ve done here. 

138730	138448	121695	106576	133683
138341	122959	126953	138323	117191
133787	127811	119246

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Sprinkles of Life apple tree

As I write this in the evening (you don’t really think I get up and do my blog before 7am do you? If you do, you really don’t know me!), I am surrounded by noisy, angry cats. This is what nice weather does to them. They want to go out exploring at night, but then they get into fights with neighbour cats, develop a nasty abscesses which means that, right now, it all my Stampin’ Up! takings are all going on vets’ bills. 

So I’ll try to ignore the caterwauling and concentrate on this cute card product. I CASEd it, of course… it’s what I do when I get new stamp sets until I get the feel for them properly and start coming up with my own designs. I think this was from a Stampin’ Up!® inspiration page on the demonstrator website.

What you’re going to love about this stamp set and punch combo is its versatility. We all want to get more value out of our crafting supplies, so when you find something that offers so many possibilities, it’s a guaranteed winner. 

When you buy this set, Sprinkles of Life, £2 will go to Ronald McDonald House Charities in the UK, which provide free accommodation for parents so they can stay near their child undergoing hospital treatment away from home.  And when you purchase the co-ordinating punch, you’ll open up a world of possibility as you can punch out a tree, its leaves, a bouquet of flowers, a cloud… and the cloud can become a cake topping and an ice cream, too! 

Tell you what, you check out these samples from the Stampin’ Up!® catalogue, while I go and dig out the ear plugs…

139971	138295	124391	121681
106549	126982	126978	126953
133643	132708	134568

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15 Stampin' Up!® products you can used for Mixed Media projects

Yes you CAN use SU products for mixed media, as I’ve been enjoying finding out lately. I decided to make a list of some of the items you can use. I bet you already have loads of these, so what are you waiting for? Get messy!

Little chocolate boxes with Petite Petals

One of my customers, Tracey, makes beautiful little boxes for all occasions. It’s always exciting to receive a beautifully crafted little box from Tracey, at Christmas, Hallowe’en etc… not least because they usually contain some of my favourite chocolate!

These are Tracey’s latest creations. The occasion? She simply wanted to thank everyone in my Virtual Hostess Club for their orders. Wasn’t that nice of her? 

And, once again, they contained my favourite chocolate: Green & Black’s… and I confess that I did search for (and find!) my ultra-fave, the milk. Although Tracey did recently introduce me to a new one which is now my ultra-ultra-fave, and that’s the milk with seasalt. I’ve never seen it anywhere though. :(

I can’t give you the measurements but I can give you the recipe…

133155	133322	127811	130919
133683	133682	106549	133701
133668	119246	135315

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