Comfort Café Notebooks

The last item I made for swapping was some little notebooks for fellow Inkredible team members (my upline and... err... sidelines?) who I knew were going to Telford.

These were very simple to make with my birthday Bind-it-all present!  The Flowers were punched with the Blossom Punch and the centre from Itty Bitty Shapes.

Here's a lovely photo that Vicky had taken of us all:

You can visit Vicky's blog here, Jacqueline's blog here and Helen's blog here.

OK, last post about swaps tomorrow and you can see all of the amazing swaps I received in return!  And I love today's cat picture:

Thanks as always for visiting,

Sew Frustrating!

I love sewing.  I love admiring other people's sewing.  I love all the amazing things you can do with a needle and thread.  BUT I am sew rubbish at it!  When I saw the sewing theme at Less is More, I was about to launch into faux stitching but then thought that it is supposed to be a *challenge* and I had better *challenge* myself.  So I threaded a needle and huffed and puffed and stropped my way through a lot of card before making this:

Captured in the evening sunlight - which I think goes a long way to making my stitching look better! - this looks a remarkably simple card.  In fact, it looks like more like a child's drawing of a flower.  My husband has been subjected to a constant stream of 'do you think this looks alright?' today and in the end he said 'I'm trying to word this in the right way... I think it's good and I think you should enter it but I don't think this challenge is bringing out your best crafting!'  Nor my best side, he was probably muttering under his breath!

Supplies
Stamps: Mixed Bunch, French Foliage
Ink: Basic Black, River Rock, Wild Wasabi, marker pen in Wild Wasabi
Card: Daffodil Delight, hammered white card (non-SU)
Other: antique brad; stamp-a-ma-jig; Blossom punch, sponge dauber; embroidery thread; paper piercing tool and mat; needle; blood, sweat, toil and tears

Along with the pretty much the rest of the UK, we have been celebrating the return of sunshine today with a nice walk alongside the river Lune, putting off mowing the lawn until tomorrow (which is probably a general invitation for it to rain again).  Meanwhile, Socks has been sunbathing as he does have to maintain his beauty regimen.  These cats, on the other hand, have to recharge their catteries...

Thanks for stopping by, and, whatever the weather, I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

It's not called an Idea Book for nothing....

Today's card is a almost an exact copy of one that appears in the Summer Mini Catalogue.  Ideas, you say, in a catalogue?  Well yes, both minis and the main Idea Book & Catalogue are jam-packed with ideas to get you started with various stamp sets, meaning you're hardly ever left there scratching your noggin puzzling out what to make.

I swapped the papers around a little and I used flowers instead of the bird die cut, adding the sentiment and the pearls to make this:

These are my new favourite papers: Twitterpated (and I thought they only used that word in Bambi!).  They coordinate beautifully with the new Bordering on Romance stamp set which is what I've used to stamp my banner with.  The shaped line of dots is also from this set, as is the flower border at the bottom. And while I'm on the subject of coordination, do you like how the edge I've die cut coordinates with the embossed edge?  The new Edgelits Adorning Accents dies match perfectly with a set of three different edge embossing folders.  I've used the second Edgelits die to cut the scalloped edge at the bottom of the main panel.

Here's a close-up of the layering at the bottom:

If you're curious where that sentiment came from, it's just two words from a stamp from Happiest Birthday Wishes.  I masked most of the stamp to stamp a word at a time in Basic Grey ink and then cut them into little pennants.

Here's a sneaky peek at the inside:

Supplies
Stamps: Bordering on Romance, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)
Ink: Basic Grey, marker pens in Riding Hood Red, Pear Pizzaz, Baja Breeze
Card: Whisper White, Pear Pizzaz
Paper: Twitterpated Designer Series Paper
Other: Twitterpated Designer buttons, bakers' twine, pearls, Blushing Bride pleated ribbon, aqua painter, Edgelits Adorning Accents and embossing folders, Blossom punch

If you'd like a (free) paper copy of the new Summer Mini so you can see these ideas and goodies for yourself, just let me know by email or by phone on 07977 141605.  I have a few left and one could be winging its way to your UK address before the day is out!

I made this card for the Make My Monday 'happy birthday with pearls' challenge.  It has been way too long since I got my act together to make a card for one of my favourite challenges!

It has also been ages since I shared a photo of Socks so I shall remedy that today!  Last week Socks was concerned at how big my ironing pile was so he decided to help:

Even the thought of ironing must have tired him out though because 15 minutes later, he was tuckered out:

I'm still trying to work out where all his limbs are in this photo:

Thank you for visiting Socks and me today,