Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Peaceful Pines easel card



Here’s another project from the Shoebox Swap I held with my team the other week. This was Patsy’s creation and we all really loved it. The only difficulty we had was stamping the images directly onto the Christmas tree shapes as Patsy had very kindly cut them out in advance for us. Naturally mine was wonky, but I stamped it again with much better results… then only went and stuck it down with the “bad” side facing up! Doh!



Monday, 12 October 2015

Mix It Up Monday: Happy Scenes


I know, I know, it’s barely Monday but there are a few hours of the day left! And, for my readers across The Pond, I’m still very much in time for Mix It Up Monday, in which I create a project using one of my colour combinations from my In Color Charts

The stamp set is called Happy Scenes but the card is anything but. In fact, for a Christmas card, it’s a little gloomy. I don’t hate it but really don’t love it – it definitely needs something else but I couldn’t get to anything appropriate so I left it as it is. Plus, I’ve messed up a little as the DSP is actually Real Red, which I didn’t realise when I was making the card. 



As delicious as this colour combination sounds, I found it quite a challenge; I really wanted to add a splash of green in there. Well you know me, can’t resist a bit of Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive at Christmas time! 

Saturday, 10 October 2015

Caturday: Three for the price of one


Three cats for the price of one today! And aren’t they gorgeous? Baby is on the left – she has orange eyes so is easy to tell apart. The other two are George and Katie and I’m afraid I can only tell them apart by, ahem, lifting the their tails. All of them are adorable and, sadly, all of them may prove harder to home because they’re black. Don’t know why because black cats rule!

Extension update: The kitchen is now completed - hurrah! Now we need to settle on where everything goes... at the moment we keep moving things around because we can’t decide. Plus, we still have loads of boxes from the garage to sort through, and skirting boards, architrave, and decorating to deal with. One day all will be finished... probably!

Friday, 9 October 2015

Clean and simple Sleigh Ride card


I must get back to blogging more frequently! It’s not like I’m short of projects - I still have most of the cards from my Christmas workshop to show you, and I was part of a shoebox swap in the morning with some of my team. 

For those who have never experienced a shoebox swap, it’s great fun; you take along a project for everyone to make. It means you get to use stamps and tools you may not have, and stamp in a different style from your own. The only rule for this one was that it had to be from the new Autumn/Winter catalogue. 


I was cunning… I mean organised… and took along the leftover Make & Takes from an early SU party, but I’ll show you the other projects over the next few days. This one was Tricia’s and I loved it - clean and simple with crisp lines but with a fun technique in there, too; to create the moon you simply punch with a circle punch, then taking the “negative” rather than the circle, punch again to create a crescent moon. You can’t tell from my picture, but it’s punched out of glimmer paper for extra sparkle. 



Monday, 5 October 2015

Mix It Up Monday: Wonderland


It’s Mix It Up Monday again and time for another colour combination from my In Color charts. I love greens and earthy tones, as you may have noticed, and I thought this combo was perfect for some trees, using a borrowed (and much coveted) stamp set, Wonderland. 


I stamped with Old Olive and then stamped again without re-inking to get a paler shade. The very dark green in the foreground is gorgeous Mossy Meadow. Tip Top Taupe only plays a minor role on the front of this project, as the snowflake background, but it makes another appearance inside, where I’ve stamped the trees on a Very Vanilla panel (you’ll have to trust me on this, as I forgot to photograph it). 


Most of my supplies are still inaccessible so I kept the card simple, with just a touch of Linen Thread and some tiny pearls to finish it off. 


Saturday, 3 October 2015

Caturday: Vivienne... and an exciting extension update!


Caturday already? Wow, that week went fast! Here’s a pic of beautiful Vivienne, one of the newest residents at the shelter. I know nothing of her back story but do know that she has stunning eyes. She wouldn’t let me stroke her but was very inquisitive when I tried to photograph her and kept coming up to the camera for a closer look. So glad we’re all digital now - I’d have wasted a lot of film otherwise!


Things have been very busy here on the home front. We now have a woodburning stove again - hurrah! As much as I moaned about the old one, I really did miss it while it was gone. The new one is smaller, more efficient and purely a room heater (the old one did the hot water, too). It’s proving very popular with the cats, who have returned to their favourite habits of sitting in a cardboard box in front of the flames. (Mr Winky got a bit too hot one day and had to hide under the desk to cool down.)



And the other extremely exciting news is that we have (half a) kitchen! Most importantly, a working sink, washing machine, oven and hob! Whoohoo! We celebrated last night with shop-bought pizza, which was less satisfying than expected. Oh, we also have a working dishwasher but we’re a bit scared of that as we don’t know what we’re doing and only have four plates, four dishes etc anyway so it’s not very practical until we bring all our other crockery in from the garage. The kitchen fitter should be finished by Tuesday so we can fill our cupboards properly then. It’s beginning to feel more like a home than a building site, which is great, although the kitchen is so posh that it feels like being on holiday!

Ok, better go... mission find old-fashioned (9") skirting boards this morning... oh and some tiles. 

Thursday, 1 October 2015

Merry Everything... CASEd from the catalogue



Terrible picture, sorry – and not even an original idea, as I CASEd it completely from the Autumn/Winter catalogue for my recent Christmas Workshop. It’s a lovely design though, and really shows off those lovely dies... which are proving to be the most popular item from the catalogue! But don’t overlook the stamp set, too – I love the little dog and fox on this card.



The small print

This is my personal blog and my sole responsibility as an Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. All images are © Stampin' Up!® All content including photographs, projects and text are © Helen Read, unless otherwise stated. Please feel free to copy my ideas for your personal use and inspiration - if you are a SU demonstrator you may use these ideas for your events but please give credit where it is due. Please do not use my ideas for monetary gain, competitions or publication. The images on this blog - including blog buttons - should not be copied and used elsewhere on the internet or on CDs.