Bold Brights!

I still seem to be in the mood for bright colours. I was playing around with Petal Pizzazz, a set from the new Mini Catalogue, and just gravitated towards the brights for these flowers. So I'd stamped the flowers in Real Red and Only Orange, and the leaves in Green Galore, but then I was stuck on where to go from there. The easiest thing was to stay in the colour family and really "zing" it all up, so I picked Tempting Turquoise for the background and more orange for the sentiment and mat. Unless you're scared to look now, here's the colourful result:

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®
Stamp Sets: Petal Pizzazz, Live your Dream
Colours: Real Red, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Yoyo Yellow
Other: circle nestabilities dies, Swiss Dots CB embossing folder

I don't know if you can see, but I did some rockin' and rollin' on the smaller flower (so proud of myself ;-)): I first inked the stamp in Only Orange and then I rolled the outer edge of the stamp on the Real Red inkpad, and got a very nice graduated effect (just like in the catalogue, lol!). Overall, I'm really rather pleased with this bright creation :) Thanks for looking!

Mother's Day

This is the card I made for my MIL, as requested by hubby (none for my mum, as they don't celebrate Mother's Day in Germany until the 2nd Sunday in May):

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Sets: Live your Dream, Occasional Greetings

Colours: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Not quite Navy, Chocolate Chip

Other: Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, scallop edge punch, gems

My MIL really liked it, especially the colours - she does like blue, so no coincidence there ;-) Thanks for stopping by!

Big Sister Card

My friend's niece is soon to be a big sister, so I was asked to make a card for her - here it is:

I used "Ballet Maggie" by Sugar Nellie, because she's cute and the way she sticks her arms up always makes me think she's saying "look how big I am". But that might just be me... I coloured her with water colour pencils as usual and cut and matted the image with nesties. The pink and blue cardstock are from the Paper Mill Shop, the green (embossed with Swiss Dots CB folder) is SU! Gable Green. The name was stamped with MM magnetic letter stamps. Can't remember now what the make of the patterned paper is, sorry. The inside was then decorated to match:

It's been over a week again since I've last blogged, this last week has been pretty busy! Mondays and Tuesdays are always filled with the girls' activities, Wednesday we had a lovely visit with friends from the States, their 4-year-old boy and their newly adopted baby girl (15 mths). We hadn't seen them for two years, so it was great to catch up and hear all about their new addition to the family. My girls were absolutely smitten with her :) Thursday we went to see eldest daughter at school in her World War II play/musical - what a treat! It was very well done, the children performed well beyond their years for the most part, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! There was lots of singing and dancing and a wee narrative to tie it all together. Tears were running quite freely at times, it got quite emotional :) Eldest daughter was on a complete high afterwards, saying this had been the best day ever, and she wanted to do the show again and again! This from the girl who's never been keen on performing or putting herself forward! Saturday was spent visiting again, and yesterday, I got spoilt with Mother's Day treats and a cuppa in bed, before we went to hubby's parents to give his mum her treats (her card is here). My girls were quite excited about Mother's Day and had all made cards and little treats for me and were very keen to hand them over - it was pretty amazing that I actually got the lie-in they had promised me! Good times :)

This week promises to be a little calmer, and I'm hoping to get some more crafting and blogging done. Thanks for stopping by!

Forest Friends

I was making a few cards yesterday for challenges, and liked one layout so much, I ended up making another card for it today :)

I received my pre-order from Stampin' Up!'s new mini catalogue earlier in the week, so I just had to start inking up the stamps :) This set is called Forest Friends and I think it's extremely cute! I stamped the deer in Close to Cocoa, the tree in Chocolate Chip and Old Olive, and the sentiment (from Circle of Friendship) in Old Olive. The scalloped square was cut with a Nestie die in Really Rust, and the papers are Spiced Cider DP. Thanks for stopping by, look out for more projects with new stamps from the mini catalogue coming up.

Day of Challenge Cards - no 3

This card was made for the current challenge at A Spoonful of Sugar, which is a sketch layout that I love and have actually used a few times before. I know, I know, not really that challenging then, but I just couldn't resist. I made a card for my gran's birthday, she's turning 96 (!) on Wednesday.

The papers are by We R Memory Keepers (Precious Metals - Silver Lining), on a Really Rust cardbase. The image is by Little Claire and watercoloured using markers (for a change!). The big flower is from Poppicrafts, the buttons are from stash and were threaded with thin cardstock strips. Sentiment is computer-printed. Again, loving the bright colours, I seem to be needing brightness, it's still far too grey and driech outside. I made another card using this layout and some new Stampin' Up! stash, you can see this on my other blog. Thanks for looking! :)

Day of Challenge Cards - no 2

This card is for the challenge over at Stamp Something, which is calling for GREEN as the main colour of the card.

I've used Doodlebug spotty green paper, pieces of pink ribbon and cream lace, some prima flowers and bling for the centres. The image is Luvvie by Leanne Ellis from Funky Kits, coloured with water colour pencils and some Stickles added (on the dots and the flower). Sentiment is by Stampin' Up!. Thanks for looking, card no 3 coming up in the next post. :)

Day of Challenge Cards - no 1

With the girls happily entertained at their grandparents', I sat down yesterday afternoon, wrote/sketched down a number of current challenges, and started to play. I managed to make three cards, for three different challenges, and I really enjoyed myself! I used little 12x12cm cards that came in a goodie bag from Craftwork Cards that I bought last week at the SECC, and they are just so easy to work with :) So here is number 1, for the challenge at Friday Sketchers:

I used papers and card from a pad that I got in the States last year, Marcella by K, the bird stamp is from Prima Marketing, coloured with watercolour pencils, the sentiment is by Studio G, buttons and flower are from stash, and the blue layer was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. I really love the bright colours of this card! Thanks for looking, card no 2 will be in the next post :)

True Friend Gift Set

I'm trying to make myself use my stamp sets more regularly. I've got so many now that some just never seem to see the light of day. The idea is that I use a different one at least twice a week, but so far that's not been happening. However, last week, I randomly selected a set - True Friend - then a colour family - Earth elements - and off I went. I made a set of notecards with matching envelopes, plus a box to put them in. Quite pleased with the result, it'll be handy if I ever need a quick gift for someone :)

The cards

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®
Stamp Sets: True Friend, Canvas background
Colours: (left to right) Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Ruby Red; Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Cameo Coral; Whisper White, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, Not quite Navy
Other: Nestabilities scallop circle die

The box

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®
Stamp Set: True Friend
Colours: Whisper White, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Summer Sun
Other: Pumpkin Pie Designer Series Paper, Chocolate Chip ribbon, Nestabilities scallop rectangle die

Sorry, no pictures of the envelopes, they've just got the small flower motif in a corner, in the different colourways.

I definitely had fun making this and will keep trying to do this regularly :) Thanks for stopping by!

Secret Sister Card

Just a quickie, I'm feeling a bit "blah" this week (blaming it on hormones...). Here's the first card I made for my Secret Sister this month:

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®
Stamp Sets: Organic Grace, Best Yet (both current hostess sets)
Colours: Very Vanilla, Ruby Red, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa
Other: caramel gingham ribbon, Ruby Red brads, distressing tool, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" plus scallop circle punches

I stamped the card base with the fern image in close to cocoa for some background interest. The main panel was randomly stamped with the flowers and dragonflies in different colours, and I cut out a couple of extra ones and decoupaged them for more dimension. My "Sister" liked it, hope you like it, too. Thanks for looking!

Exciting Stampin' Up! News!!!

Right, there's two bits of news for all you Stampin' Up fans out there!

First of all, effective throughout all of March, Stampin' Up! are offering a whopping 25% discount on all their “On Board” chipboard packs! There is no minimum qualifying purchase and no limit to the amount of packs you can purchase. There are four packs to choose from and these are shown on pages 78 and 94 of the current catalogue.

Secondly, and this is where I got very excited, Stampin' Up! have put together Europe's first Mini Catalogue which will run from 1 April to 30 September 2009. Let me tell you, it's gorgeous! I had a hard time limiting myself when I placed my pre-order, and I have already earmarked quite a few more bits and bobs for future orders :) There are stamp sets, there are Designer Series paper packs, there is ribbon, rub-ons, buttons, punches - the lot! If you're interested, send me an email, and I'll post a copy of the catalogue out to you as soon as I've received them (hopefully sometime next week). Bear in mind that most of the products in this mini are likely to be limited to the duration of the catalogue, so if you see anything you like, best to order sooner rather than end up missing out :) I am eagerly awaiting my new stamp sets, so look out for some new projecst on here in the very near future.

Candy Alert!

Pop on over to the very talented and lovely Deb's blog, she's offering a very generous helping of candy to celebrate her making the design team for Whimsy Stamps and also for reaching over 60K hits! Well done, Deb!