Home to Roost Sale-a-Bration stamp set

This is my other joint favourite stamp set from Sale-a-Bration. It's called Home to Roost and we made this card with it on Crafty Friday last week.

The images are stamped in Crumb Cake, then coloured using ink pad lids and Blender Pens. Calypso Coral for this handsome cockerel's comb, Pool Party and Bermuda Bay for his tummy and tail feathers, Crushed Curry and Mango Melody for his back and chest.

Mix It Up Monday: Best Birds and Tree Rings

I was in Ikea last weekend – twice, for my sins – and I saw some of their Christmas ginger biscuits on sale for 50p. I just knew they had potential so grabbed a couple of packs. 

My hunch that they would fit in the mini pizza boxes was correct, although they do need twisting a little, so I decorated a box and made a matching card for Mix It Up Monday, using a Fresh Fig combination from my In Color charts. 

I promise you there is Blushing Bride on there; I used it with my blender pens to colour in the flowers. Admittedly it is a little obscured by the Rose Red on top, but you know how I feel about pink!

For a tip on using background stamps, please head over to my Facebook page for a short video. It’s a fab tip, although I say so myself, and will save you both time AND money. Can’t say fairer than that!

Panda photo opp

How cute are these pandas? These are going to be the Big Hit of Sale-a-Bration this year. Yes, they are part of a FREE stamp set you can earn with a £45 order before 31st March.

I gave them a wood-effect background and a Polaroid photo-style frame and backed it with some zingy Lemon Lime Twist, my favourite In Color, possibly of all time! Fun projects are so easy with these cute pandas.

Mix it Up Monday: Pretty Pines with Tree Rings

It’s Mix It Up Monday again and time for a Tranquil Tide combination that’s subtle, to say the least. It comes from my In Color charts and I thought it was perfect to use with Tree Rings and the Pretty Pines dies.  I coloured the pine cones with some Wink of Stella to give it a bit of festive glitz. 

Don’t forget the Online Extravaganza runs all week. Please visit helenread.stampinup.net for details and, if you order through me, please use the hostess code: CNVMKKYM

Tree Rings with Happiest of Days and Pieces & Patterns

This card is my version of one featured in Stampin’ Success, the magazine sent out to demonstrators. And don’t tell anyone... but I like my version better. Possibly because it features my favourite new colour, Lemon Lime Twist, and possibly because I got to use two of my favourite new stamp sets with the Tree Rings.

This completes a set of three cards made with the same three stamp sets to create three very different looks. This was the first – a cute mushroom is offset with two different wood effects. The second was a masculine look and this one is, as you can see, unashamedly girly... for me at least.

The background is stamped in Craft Whisper White ink and then embossed in white, just to give it a bit of extra oomph.  I love the effect this creates and some of the ladies who made this at the weekend – my team in the morning and my club members in the afternoon – said she thought the tree rings looked like flowers in this context.

Personally I think they look like Tree Rings, but who am I to argue?

Mix It Up Monday: Tree Rings and a little bear

Three stamp sets, same three as on this project, but a very different look for today’s Mix It Up Monday project. My club ladies made this project, along with another card using the same stamps, at Welcome event over the weekend. 

I think the pop of Lemon Lime Twist (my favourite new In Color - did I mention that?) really makes this card zing and the Tree Rings background stamp really comes into its own when used in Soft Suede as a subtle woodland backdrop. 

I wanted to see if I could use this fairly girly greeting from Happiest of Days on a gender neutral card. I couldn’t face masking off the flower so stamped it all and covered it with the little bear. I had planned to cover it with the dinosaur (hence the green) but it wasn’t quite big enough. Dinosaurs may not have been green anyway… and bears certainly aren’t, but who cares?

For more fab colour combos, take a look at my In Color charts… and, if you get chance, why not play along with the challenge?

Tree Rings with Happiest of Days and Pieces & Patterns

As soon as I saw this Tree Rings background stamp, it went straight onto my wish list. But then, when I finally got my hands on it, I sat here for ages, not knowing where to start... completely stumped (see what I did there?).

Finally, last weekend I managed to create some cards with this set. I’m holding off showing you the other two for now as they may well become the Make & Takes for an event I’m holding for my club ladies, and I do like to surprise them.

I’ve used it here with Pieces & Patterns (love that set!) and the ever-so-versatile Happiest of Days. This stamp set will be getting a lot of use tomorrow as I hold a charity stamp a stack for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Guests will be stamping up a storm to donate cards to the charity, which provides accommodation for families who have to travel to specialist hospitals around the UK. We will be creating at east 50 cards to donate... hopefully many more!