Caturday - shy William

William is so shy that he will only come out from his hiding place when tempted by Dreamies! Fortunately, some kind cat lover has seen past his nerves and he goes to his new home very soon. You can see more pictures of William (including the rest of his face!) and the Woodland Nook Cat Rescue blog. Yes, you’ve guessed it, I’ve been roped into maintaining that, too. Because I have loads of time of my hands, right?

Speech bubble fun

I do love these speech bubble stamps and Framelits. You can stamp the images and cut them out, as I’ve done with the “woo-hoo!” or just cut out a frame and put something behind it, as I’ve done behind it. I’ve popped the top layer up for some added dimension.

The paper comes from a rather handy Designer Series Paper stack in the Spring/Summer catalogue. Each piece is 6.5 x 4.5 inches which is perfect for matting photos on scrapbook pages, or for using on cards. I love the funky colours in the pack; Coastal Cabana, Real Red and Crumb Cake, and the patterns are really nice, too, with lots of variety. Highly recommended. 

And don’t miss those cute little candy dots! They come in colour collection packs, so these Real Red dots are from the Brights pack. They look like brads but are self-adhesive, so reduce the bulk … and you can stick them on as an afterthought without worrying about those ugly brad backs showing inside your card.

I’ll be sending this card to the newest member of my team, who has very sensibly joined during Sale-a-Bration, when you get extra goodies in your Starter Kit. If you’d like to find out more about starting a craft business – big or small – in this way, please do get in touch, as time is running out for the special offer!

Stamps: Just Sayin’

Cardstock: Whisper White Note Cards, Whisper White

Paper: Fresh Prints DSP Stack

Ink: Real Red

Accessories: Word Bubbles Framelits, Candy Dots - Brights 

Washi tape in home décor

Wouldn’t these look great in my imaginary craft room? I do hope to have one at some point in the future but right now it seems very distant. 

Meanwhile, these little beauties are in a box under the stairs, which isn’t quite the same, is it?

I found the letters on the internet, painted them white and then covered the edges using Retro Fresh Designer Washi Tape. Some of the tape was the exact width of the letters which was great, but others needed to be trimmed, so don’t look too closely!

Supplies: Retro Fresh Designer Washi Tape

Spiral Flower debut

I love this gorgeous Hardwood background stamp and wish I’d ordered it! Fortunately, my friend Kelly has it so I had a go with it and made this very simple card. 

The most complicated element on it is the paper flower, which I made using the fabulous new Spiral Flower Originals die. My flower isn’t perfect but a) it was my first go and b) does it really matter? For the record, I deliberately “smashed” it, to make it look a bit more shabby chic! Then I covered up the uneven centre with an oversized pearl. As the saying goes, “there are no mistakes, only opportunities for further embellishment”. 

I’m still loving my Fringe Scissors - that little pop of coloured fringing really finishes off the card, I think. 

Stamps: Simply Celebrate, Hardwood

Cardstock: Summer Starfruit, Baked Brown Sugar, Naturals White, Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: Gold thread (from Good as Gold SAB kit), Spiral Flower Originals Die, Large Pearls, Fringe Scissors

My Digital Monday birthday card

It’s My Digital Monday again and here’s a birthday card I made using some of the new items I’ve downloaded for My Digital Studio recently. The DSP is Sweet Sorbet and comes from the SAB digital collection which I earned free when I ordered supplies for a forthcoming class (yes, demonstrators get Sale-a-Bration freebies, too!). 

The candle stamp isn’t included with the original software but it was only £1.50 to add it on. Take a look in my online store at the digital downloads available. The larger collections are several pounds, but there are some for mere pence… and some are even free! If you already use design software, do check out our downloads anyway, as they can be used in other programmes. Download a free or very cheap one to try out if you’re not convinced. 

For this card, I started with one of the card templates provided with the software and then pretty much pulled it apart. I think all that’s left are the two dotted lines!

I practised colouring in a stamp with different colours, just as you would do with a real stamp and markers. This couldn’t be easier in MDS, especially as, unlike with real stamps and markers, you can hit “undo” if you make a mistake! You can change the size of your “brush” so you can colour detailed areas so you can achieve perfection… which, with my card blown up to fill my computer screen, I can see that I haven’t! Just spotted two little bits that aren’t coloured as I intended. 

This strip is made up of two stamps; you can repeat images and then line them up perfectly… easier than using a Stamp-a-ma-jig! 

For the greeting, I “coloured” the letter i (which was actually a small candle) with Very Vanilla so it didn’t show up on the background, then replaced it with one of the candles from the main image. You can crop stamped images, too, so you can just show the area that you want. 

I personally wouldn't print this card out to send as I still prefer real cardstock for birthday cards, but this would be great to send as an e-card if you're running late.

Colours used: Pool Party, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Calypso Coral, Baked Brown Sugar, Bermuda Bay

Caturday - Prince

Never let it be said that my Mr Winky is the most gormless-looking black cat in the world. Despite his nickname – Prince of Dorkness – I think this fellow has just snatched that title from under his whiskers.

This beautiful black cat really is called Prince, and he’s a relatively new resident at Woodland Nook Cat Shelter. I haven’t met him yet, as he’s always been too shy to come out. Fingers crossed this weekend!

Good as Gold card kit

Are you one of those people who turns up their nose at kits? Well it’s time you took another look! Check out this collection of projects. All were made using the Good as Gold Card Kit (FREE during Sale-a-Bration with a £45 order) as a starting point. 

The kit, pictured above, is designed to make eight note cards. It features eight spotty card bases with a hint of gold, plus all the elements you need to complete your cards – in three languages!

Let’s look at each project…

First we have a Thank You card, made using the kit and nothing but the kit, following one of the suggestions on the packet. What I haven’t shown (doh!) is the matching envelope. You get eight Crumb Cake note card sized envelopes with this kit, and each one comes with a gold envelope liner. 

Next up is this cute little box. Again, this uses nothing but the kit elements, but I’ve turned the scored card base into a box instead, following the excellent instructions of US demonstrator Dawn Olchefske.

But what if you want to add to the kit? Here are a couple of cards I created using limited supplies, but still with the kit as a base. First I made a standard-sized card (A5 folded in half) and embellished it using the kit elements. I sacrificed the envelope liner to create a gold layer under a section of the spotty card base. 

Finally, I made another note card, using another piece of card base as a DSP panel, matting it with Basic Black to give it extra pop. Another strip of the same envelope liner formed the gold strip. If you’re a canny crafter, you could even get a strip like this from an envelope liner and STILL use it to line the envelope, as the flap will still be fully lined. If that makes any sense at all!

And, if you’re crafting with the benefits of all your supplies to hand, which I wasn’t when I made these, you can go as wild as you like, adding stamped images, different cardstock, buttons and more. 

If you’d like to show your friends how easy crafting can be, I’d love to come and demonstrate this kit. Please get in touch if you’d like to book a party – Sale-a-Bration is rapidly running out and I don’t have many dates left, so hurry!

Supplies: Good as Gold card kit

Additional cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Crumb Cake

Just Sayin' with wooden elements

Have you ordered these little Wooden Elements yet? You might want to consider adding them to your order as they’re very cute and fun. You get hearts, arrows, chevrons, speech bubbles, triangles, circles, banners and starbursts, four of each. I love them as they are so have just used them plain so far but you could ink them, cover them in paper, stamp on them… go wild!

And I’m still in love with the Just Sayin’ bundle, which I’ve used here with Retro Fresh washi tape (LOVE washi tape!). 

I earned all of these new items FREE as part of a demonstrator rewards programme which runs at various points in the year. Stampin’ Up!® is a very generous company and is always keen to keep its demonstrators happy! If you’d like to be a happy demonstrator, running a business – big or small – doing something you love, please get in touch to find out more about the fabulous Sale-a-Bration offer which runs until the end of March. It costs just £99 to join this fabulous company, and you’ll get everything you need to get started in your business, including £150 of craft products and a business pack... not to mention that you will be part of a team of lovely, supportive people!

Stamps: Just Sayin’
Cardstock: Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar, Very Vanilla
Ink: Tangerine Tango
Accessories: Word Bubbles Framelits, Wooden Elements, Retro Fresh Washi Tape

MDS: Sale-a-Bration Sweet Sorbet scrapbook page

It’s My Digital Monday and here’s another 12x12 scrapbook page I created in My Digital Studio. Soon I’ll have enough to justify getting them printed. 

For this page I had fun with the new Sale-a-Bration Digital Ensemble called One Big Sale-A-Bration 2014. This is a free download with a £45 spend and is packed with features. You get:

• See Ya Later stamp brush set
• Petal Parade stamp brush set
• You’re Lovely stamp brush set
• Decorative Dots stamp brush
• Banner Blast stamp brush set
• Sweet Sorbet DSP patterns
• 14-piece Sweet Sorbet accessory pack

Yes, it’s a pretty comprehensive kit!

I was inspired by a scrapbook page I’d pinned on Pinterest ages ago, but mine doesn’t have the same vintage feel - partly because the Sweet Sorbet products are so fresh and clean and partly because vintage looks take a bit longer to create … for me at the moment, anyway. 

I couldn’t find a Word Window punch in my MDS punch collections – somebody please guide me if they’re there! – so created my own using a Whisper White rectangle, with the corners rounded. Then I duplicated it to make sure they were all the same size. I’m pretty pleased with the page, although the temptation to keep going back to tweak things is hard to resist!

RIP Pippa

A sad day at Woodland Nook Cat Rescue this week as we said farewell to Pippa, gone to the settee in the sky. RIP Pippa.