Pebbles - holding court

Pebbles is another of the larger-than-life characters at the cat shelter. Sadly, Pebbles has been mistreated so is now very fearful of people – I made the mistake of trying to stroke her once and received scratches as a souvenir.

I’m delighted to say that Pebbles now has a home and hopefully she’ll be happier there and learn to trust people again. 

Retro flowers

Bright Blossoms is a really popular stamp set in the Summer Mini, so I had to have a play with it. I love the bold, retro look of the vases and flowers in this set and dug out some of my favourite colours for this card.

Stamps: Bright Blossoms, Party This Way

Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive (textured), Pacific Point, Whisper White

Paper: Brights Designer Series Paper Stack

Ink: Pacific Point, Old Olive, Real Red

Accessories: ½” circle punch, modern label punch, basic rhinestones

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Cheery flag card

I keep seeing these flag cards on Pinterest and elsewhere and really love them. I haven’t used my Brights paper stack nearly enough so have LOADS left – and this card didn’t really dent my supplies. I just cut five strips of the dotted paper (my favourite pattern) in varying widths and then cut the V shapes out to create the flag/banner shapes. It makes a really bright cheerful card – and can be done with any Designer Paper scraps you have lying around.

Stamps: Tiny Tags

Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink:  Pacific Point

Accessories: White Baker’s Twine, Jewellery Tag Punch, Basic Rhinestones

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Small cards to say a big thank you

A welcome break from Christmas to show you a small batch of little cards I made. These are half-size – ie you can get four from a sheet of A4. I don’t bother with envelopes and have started putting these in with people’s orders to thank them (when I remember! Sorry if you receive an order without one!).

Stamps: Mixed Bunch

Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Early Espresso

Ink:  Early Espresso, So Saffron

Accessories: Blossom Punch, 1” Circle punch

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Caturday - and it's Solo's turn

Happy Caturday everyone!

I know you shouldn’t have favourites but there’s something very special about this cat at the shelter. His name is Solo and he came all the way over from Crete on a four-day journey in a van! He settled in well at the shelter and became best friends with a black and white cat called Harley.

Solo is a real character and a bit of a thug – I once caught him simultaneously chasing a toy mouse, attacking an artificial flower and beating up one of the kittens. On our last visit to the shelter, he ran up my daughter’s leg, to attack the phone charm which was hanging out of her pocket. He hung on for a while but unfortunately not long enough for me to get a photo. 

Another simple Christmas card

The second Ornament punch card also uses the Delightful Decorations stamp set. Again it’s CASEd (this time from US demonstrator Diane Schultz) and again it’s a simple card to reproduce quickly.

The foliage is simply the largest tree from Lovely as a Tree (that stamp set never goes out of style!), stamped repeatedly in Wild Wasabi. A hole is pierced for the Cherry Cobbler twine to go through and a punched ornament popped up on top.

Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Curly Cute

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Real Red, Wild Wasabi

Ink: Wild Wasabi, Real Red

Accessories: Ornament punch, Basics glimmer brads, white Baker’s Twine, Cherry Cobbler reinker Pearls

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Simple punch Christmas card

The first of two Christmas cards using the Ornament Punch, this one was blatantly CASEd from (US?) demonstrator Catherine Pooler. It’s a nice easy one to make in multiples when you want to churn out a lot of Christmas cards in a hurry. The top layer of Crumb Cake cardstock is popped up over a small piece of Designer Series Paper. The Baker’s Twine (dyed Cherry Cobbler using reinkers) is simply attached at the back and then the bow (well it was a bow, once!) is tied separately.

Stamps: Curly Cute

Cardstock: Crumb Cake

Paper: Holly Berry

Ink: Real Red

Accessories: Ornament Punch, White Baker’s Twine, Cherry Cobbler reinker

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

"I am a cat and I will walk in front of your card"

A cat and a card today – in the same photo!

I needed a white background for this card (will tell you why one day) so went out into the sunshine with two bits of DSP backing, propped them up against a wall and began to snap away.

Enter, stage left, Cobweb... seemingly oblivious to my presence and the important task in hand.  But, as a long-term cat owner, I know better and that she was probably thinking: “I am a cat and I will walk where I please for I am more important than you and your stupid card.”

Just in case you can’t see the card properly, due to the presence of whiskers and paws, here’s a more successful photo from the session.

I had Christmas in July cardstock and papers out but wanted to make something not so Christmassy. Many of the Holly Berry papers can be used for other occasions, too, and I really love the tiny flowers and delicate design of this sheet. Sadly, it’s the opposite side of my other favourite sheet from the pack – the glittery polka dots! But sometimes tough decisions have to be made.

There’s a hint of a new product on there – see if you can spot it. This one won’t  be available until October but it was perfect for the card, so I thought I’d slip it on there.

Stamps: Aviary

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Real Red

Paper: Holly Berry

Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler

Punches: Scallop Oval, Boho Blossoms, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Bird, ¾” circle

Accessories: Big Shot, Adorning Accents embossing folders, pearls

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Beautiful Season embossing technique

Still wading through the Christmas in July samples... here’s the second card we made using Beautiful Season. This card is inspired by – but in the end quite different to – one I saw on the web by US blogger Joanne Travis.

For the background we used a really cool technique which marries embossing folders with the much-maligned brayer. You can create a really impressive (no pun intended) effect by following these simple steps:

1. Take your embossing folder and open it up
2. Find the front – ie, the side that says “Sizzix” on it and brayer it all over – go over a few times to ensure it’s completely covered with ink
3. Insert your cardstock and emboss as normal
4. Result? A beautiful embossed panel, with plain raised areas and ink everywhere else

You can ink the opposite side of the embossing folder for the opposite effect if you prefer.

To clean your embossing folder, just rinse under the tap and allow to dry.

Stamps: Beautiful Season

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Soft Suede

Ink: Basic Gray, Soft Suede

Accessories: Watercolour Wonder™ crayons, blender pens, Seam binding ribbon – Cherry Cobbler, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Big Shot

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

New stamp set available

Happy August, everyone!

Everyone loves new stamp sets – and there’s a gorgeous new one available this August.

Stampin’ Up!® has released a new set called Reason to Smile which will only be available from 1st to 31st August 2012. After that, it will be gone forever!

Best of all, you can choose whether you purchase this stamp set or earn it for free!

Please click here for full details.

In other news, don't forget that you only have this month to order from the Summer Mini catalogue. Some items will carry over to the Annual Catalogue, but not all, so check your wishlists please!