Caturday: Twinks

Meet Twinks. She looks a little startled, don't you think? That could be because she's come all the way from Greece, where it was lovely and warm, to live in England, where it's gone decidedly autumnal recently. More likely it's because she was enjoying a nap in a cosy igloo bed and some nutter started poking a camera in her face. She's very sweet though.

Wetlands with faux watercolour technique

I’ve made this card at two classes recently – after carefully checking that nobody was attending both. But I LOVE this stamp set (as you know) and really love this card, too. It’s loosely based on this card by Vicky Hayes, a very talented demonstrator who really rocks the Clean and Simple style. I stepped up her design as I wanted to incorporate the technique of the moment, faux watercolour backgrounds.

We began with this technique, using clear blocks, ink and a spritz of water. While this was drying, we created the rest of the card, colouring the goose with blender pens and ink pads and cutting him out.

I think the ruffled ribbon looks gorgeous on this card!

Stamps: Wetlands

Cardstock: Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Whisper White

Ink: Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding, Baked Brown Sugar

Accessories: 2 ½” circle punch, Ruffle Stretch Ribbon – Baked Brown Sugar, Blender Pen

Too Kind card

Apologies for the earlier hitch! Don’t know what I’m talking about? Ah, well, nothing to worry about and you can continue under the misapprehension that I'm efficient. But if you subscribe to the blog or visited in a certain five minutes earlier on, you’d have seen a repeat post pop up. So I deleted it quickly and have since been scrabbling around to tidy up my folders so that it doesn’t happen again.

Now I’m back with something I’m pretty sure you haven’t seen before!

When my friend Kelly is in the room, everyone makes fabulous cards. She’s a very creative influence!

This is simple but I do love it. It uses Kelly’s stamp set, Too Kind. It’s not the sort of set I’d normally look twice at but I really enjoyed using it and it’s so easy to layer up. I stamped the larger images in Crisp Canteloupe then overstamped with the co-ordinating smaller images in Calypso Coral. The stems and words are Baked Brown Sugar. Gorgeous!

Stamps: Too Kind

Cardstock: Crisp Canteloupe, Whisper White

Ink: Crisp Canteloupe, Calypso Coral, Baked Brown Sugar

Masculine card and gift box with Chalk Talk

Masculine projects are difficult, I think we all agree – and teenage boys are the hardest of all. And, let’s face it, you’re probably not going to want to spend a lot of time creating something that will likely get thrown away instead of nurtured, cherished and stored away in a keepsake box between layers of tissue paper; the fate we like to imagine for all of the cards we make and send!

But in the new Autumn/Winter catalogue there is a pack of washi tape that will solve your problems. It’s meant for Halloween, but skulls are for life, not just for Halloween, right? So I made another one of these little boxes (click here for Brenda Quintana’s great tutorial) to house a gift card, and a co-ordinating card using some of the same projects. Actually, now that I see them side by side, I could have made more effort with the co-ordination. But then, as I say, it will only get thrown away.

I followed Brenda’s instructions exactly this time but, when I came to placing the pack of Rolos in the box, they didn’t fit. Turns out American Rolos are in shorter packs. So off I went to the local shop with my completed box! I discovered that you can fit in a Twix or a Daim bar in there.

 

Another stamp which proves so useful in masculine circumstances is the little hand from Morning Post Alphabet. I’ve used the hands far more than the letters so far – must rectify that.

Stamps: Chalk Talk, Morning Post Alphabet

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Whisper White

Paper: Modern Medley

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: Chalk Talk Framelits, Linen Thread, Naturals Tape, Witches’ Brew Designer Washi Tape, ¾” circle punch

Chalk Talk and Flower Shop: gift card holder

I thought I’d better push the boat out for this card, which is for a valued customer who celebrated a milestone birthday recently. One of her friends contacted me to request a gift voucher and I was more than happy to oblige. The voucher is inside, so I hope the recipient was pleasantly surprised when she opened it.

The project was inspired by UK demonstrator Laura Mackie, whose version you can see here. I found a random envelope in my stash which suited the gift voucher shape, so started from there, with a three-panel card. There’s a bit of everything on here – but if you’ve got it, use it!

I liked it a lot when I’d finished – so much that when it came to my downline/friend/stamping inspiration Kelly’s birthday, I made a similar one for her, too.

Stamps: Chalk Talk, Flower shop, Summer Silhouettes

Cardstock: Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White

Ink: Black Stazon, Coastal Cabana, Strawberry Slush

Accessories: Paper Doilies, Chalk Talk Framelits, Eyelet Border Punch, Bird Punch, Pansy Punch, Ruffled Ribbon – Pistachio Pudding

Caturday: Pasca

It's Caturday and here's is lovely Pasca, all the way from Greece. She's not a fan of other cats, but she's very pretty an affectionate. Want?

Calm Christmas card

What a glorious morning it is! I have pegged the washing out and it's actually steaming in the sunshine. But there's a real 'end of summer' feel to the weather now; everyone (in this house at least) is back at school today and you can tell we're heading for autumn. 

Autumn naturally gets us crafters thinking about Christmas projects and I have a handful made that I can show you... all using brand new products from the Autumn/Winter catalogue. Have you had a look yet? I’d love to hear what you think!

But most of my Christmas projects will be top secret until after my Christmas is Coming Stamp-a-Stack. Talking of which, this event is now completely full! Sorry if you’ve missed the boat; my Christmas events are always really popular but I just don’t have room in the hall for any more people.

The next Christmas event will focus on packaging, décor and gifts and will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, 14^th December – registration is not yet open. But you CAN register for my Epic Day of Crafting, on Saturday, 19^th October. This will be an all-day event with three fab workshops. You can secure your place now with a £5 deposit. Click here for details.

Meanwhile, here’s another stamp set that I love from the new Autumn/Winter catalogue. It’s called Calm Christmas and features this beautiful dove, along with two greetings stamps.

Here I’ve used that same direct-to-paper technique that I used on this Wetlands card. I simply swiped the Soft Sky ink pad across the paper to create a sky, then stamped the dove on top in Midnight Muse.

An image from Mosaic Madness in Smoky Slate completes the effect and keeps things quite serene, I think.

Stamps: Calm Christmas, Mosaic Madness

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Whisper White

Ink: Midnight Muse, Soft Sky, Smoky Slate

My Digital Studio, markers and online ordering!

Oh wow, lots of announcements this morning!

New colour markers
Individual markers are now available in some of the new colours, so that you can fill any gaps in your collection.

Stampin' Write Marker New Colour Kit - 130034 - £23.95
Comprises Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder

Bermuda Bay marker - 131899 - £2.95

Crushed Curry marker - 131901 - £2.95

Soft Sky marker - 131900 - £2.95

My Digital Studio
This is now available to customers. Demonstrators have had a chance to play with it for a while and it's great fun. Best of all, if you're not sure, you can try it FREE for 30 days, using this code: 130910. If you enjoy it, you can then purchase the software for just £13.95 and, if required, download additions to the initial package. Both are available at my online store. See below.

Shop online
You can now shop with me online at my Stampin' Up!® website. I can set up hostess codes for you to use if you want to host a virtual party, but I need to set aside time to find out more about this before trying it.

Ok, I have to go to work but feel free to try My Digital Studio or the online shopping - just bear in mind that I won't be around to troubleshoot until this evening.

Butterfly bundle offer - save 15%

Papillon Potpourri is one of our most popular stamp sets - but if you're one of those who doesn't yet have it, why not get it this month while you can save on a product bundle?

Until the end of September, you can save 15% when you purchase Papillon Potpourri (page 90) and co-ordinating Bitty Butterfly punch (page 183). This offer is available on both wood-mount and clear-mount options:

Wood-mount bundle - 135311 - £26.52 (a saving of £4.68)
Clear-mount bundle - 135312 - £23.97 (a saving of £4.23)

Interested? Just email me to place your order!

I'm back with a Santa's List card

I’m back! And all of a sudden it’s Christmas! Well, not quite, but we do have a brand new Autumn/Winter catalogue to enjoy!

In ordinary circumstances, I’d have been whetting your appetite with projects made with new catalogue products for the past week or so. But no, I have had no internet and, at times, no phone, for what seems like ages now and it has been so frustrating – not least because the people at the call centre unswervingly follow a script, even if your problem isn’t an exact fit.

But I won’t bore you; I’ll just show one of my first projects made with a gorgeous new Christmas stamp set called Santa’s List. Check out the new catty, here. Or download the PDF file here.

Stamps: Santa’s List

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Paper: Season of Style

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: Chevron Embossing Folder, Scallop Circle Punch, Old Olive Simply Styled Embellishments