Flights of Fancy

Here's a card I made for the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - the theme is WINGS. And there on my table was my new-ish Magnolia stamp which I got at the beginning of the summer and which still had not seen any ink. Perfect timing! :)


I dug around for some paper and came across this beauty in my favourite colour scheme. I think it's by Flair Design. Watercoloured my image to match and added some stickles to the wings. Also used some brads, buttons, flowers and ricrac from my stash (manufacturers unknown). Sentiment is from Papertrey's Beyond Basic Borders.

I'm also going to share another card. I completely CASE-d this card (scroll to bottom of post) that I received in a swap from my lovely and very talented SBS26 sister Kate. Love that card and thought the layout was great, and finally got round to making my own card with it:

It's quite different, with very little stamping (SU! sentiment), but I like it :) Sorry for the dark photo, I don't know what happened there, thought I edited it properly... Thanks for stopping by!

Stamptacular Scallops!

I'm on a roll! I'm finally catching up on my cardmaking, and I'm loving it! I made a card today for the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge which is asking us to use something with scallops on our cards. Easy, peasy, I love scallops! Now, some of my non-crafty friends who might read this will probably doubt my sanity, but I hope the rest of you understand when I say that the colour combo of this card was inspired by my youngest daughter's outfit today! She's 5 yrs old and has quite a knack when it comes to choosing clothes. So there she was, looking rather cool and grown up, and all I could think was "kraft, aqua mist and true black, and I'm going to make a card with those colours!" And here it is:

It's very simple, a kraft base, stamped with black polka dots (Papertrey) and embellished with some black gingham ribbon; aqua scalloped rectangle cut with nesties, focal image and sentiment (Papertrey) stamped in black, and some aqua gems added. Not my usual colours at all, but it's rather grown on me. Thanks for stopping by!

Tilda and Friends - Teen Terrors

I always check out the challenges at Tilda and Friends, but hardly ever get round to completing them. For this week, however, I already had an image coloured in that was just waiting to be made into something! The challenge is to make a teen inspired ATC, and as mum to a teenager-in-waiting, the image of a shopaholic teenage daughter does indeed conjure up terror! ;-)

I used a kraft base with white ink around the edges, Cosmo Cricket "Girl Friday" paper, dymo-ed sentiment, Sugar Nellie image (watercoloured) and a flower and button from stash. Hope you like, I'm quite pleased with it :) Thanks for looking!

Got more!

Nearly forgot to post all these little creations:

They are little bookmarks that go over the corner of a page. There are different versions out there, these follow the instructions from our Stampin' Up! demo magazine and use a square of designer paper (mine is 5x5"). You fold this in half and then in half again, so you end up with a square a quarter of the size of your original one. Unfold and cut one quarter out along the fold lines. Fold the two flaps back down and adhere to make a little pocket. Then you're free to embellish, just try and keep the embellishments fairly flat, so the bookmark slides into the book easily. I also saw these bookmarks here, which ultimately inspired me to give them a go, and I had great fun making them :) They're really quick, cute and use up scraps very nicely.

Thanks for looking!

I'm back

I cannot believe for how long I haven't posted on here! The summer holidays have not been conducive to crafting and blogging, and the first two weeks of school have just flown by as well. However, since all three girls are now at school full day, I'm intending to get into a regular stamping and blogging groove, so watch this space :)

I've recently stumbled across Clean&Simple, a blog with cards that are just that, clean and simple. Hugely inspiring, I really love that style, and I've tried to make a couple of cards, inspired by Natasha's fall-to-layout #41 and by this card here.

Not sure about this card, looks a little stark and like it's missing something after all. But I'll go with it for now.

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Sets: Tart & Tangy, Live your Dream

Colours: Real Red, Basic Black, Green Galore

Other: Real Red grosgrain ribbon, scallop edge punch, white chalk ink

This one is much more my cup of tea, love the colours on that DP! Colouring was done with inkpads and a waterbrush.

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Sets: Crazy for Cupcakes

Colours: So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie

Other: Washington Apple DP, Pumpkin Pie brads

Thanks for looking!

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe the first two weeks of school are already over! My little one started with great enthusiasm and has settled into P1 wonderfully. She goes in every morning with a great big smile on her face and a cheery wave to me, it is so lovely to see! I mean, my older two settled well, too, but there was a degree of apprehension on their faces for the first few weeks - not with youngest daughter :) I suppose she's seen it all with her big sisters, but it's great nonetheless. Eldest daughter is very happy to be back at school with her friends - I can't believe she's in P7 and will be off to high school next year! Middle daughter is not quite so happy about being back at school, I think she's a little daunted that she's not in the Infants' anymore, but with the older kids. Youngest daughter will be going full day from Monday, she's very keen to have her lunch at school, and I will have hours and hours of time to myself. Anybody mentioning housework? I thought not ;-) Well, yes, it will have to be done, but there will be so much more time for crafting as well, and I WILL make use of it. Enough of the chitchat, though, here's a little project I made:

It's a wallet for some stamped images I'm sending out, using Papermill cardstock and plain paper, Doodlebug patterned paper, Stampin' Up! sentiment and oval punches and some ribbon I bought at Michael's last year. Hope you like, thanks for stopping by!

PS: Hop on over to my Stamping Stuff blog, I'll be posting some more projects over there.

Back to School Soon!

Yup, the girls are going back to school this coming Tuesday, and apart from youngest daughter, they are less than enthusiastic. Youngest daughter is excited, because she will be starting "big school" and will be in the same school as her big sisters, have a proper school bag, wear school uniform and all that. She is showing her school shoes off to everybody who might (or might not) want to see them, telling everybody she's got her school hair-cut and so on. I'm looking forward to them all going back and getting into routines again, but I'm probably going to have a few tears in my eyes on Tuesday as well, as my "baby" takes her next big step... Tissues will be at the ready!

A friend requested a few cards made for her friends' children who are starting school, and this is what I did:




They're very similar to cards I did last year, only this time I've used the Sizzix people instead of stamped images, and crayons instead of books. I still think they're quite cute :) I was cursing over the fiddly bits though - I mean, I don't mind cutting out or colouring in fairly intricate detail, but when it comes to tiny pieces of card and glue, my stubby fingers just don't cope and I get rather frustrated ;-) But, the shirts had to have collars, and the tie had to have a hint of tartan, so there we go!

Before I go, here's something I've been pondering: I may not have the world's biggest stash, but I do have a ton of stuff and lots of things never get used. First thing is I'm going to try and have a clear out of things that I'm fairly certain I will never use again. But since I'm not really very good at that, I'll still be left with a lot of stuff. So the idea is to use that stuff and not buy any more. Two exceptions: I'm going to indulge myself in one last Papertrey order and I'm going to keep buying the Stampin' Up! stuff that I need. Other than that: nothing! Which means I'll even have to steer clear of new Christmas papers :( Okay, pondering seems to be over, I'm doing it! Updates on my progress will follow...

Hope you're all having a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!