Mocha Morning Patchwork

Oh what beautiful papers! Mocha Morning speciality papers include sheets with metallic ink and others with black flocking... perfect for stroking!  And they are far too nice to throw away even the tiniest scrap which is why the sketch at Mojo Monday is perfect for them.

I've used two products that will be disappearing at the end of this month: the beautiful Very Vanilla Velvet Designer Ribbon (again perfect for stroking!) and the fabulous and ever so useful Postage Stamp Punch.  If you've been umming and ahing about these, the Spring Mini Catalogue ends on 30th April so do get in touch before then!  Remember too that during April you can choose a free set of patterned paper if your order comes to £45 or more - click the link in my sidebar for more details.

Here's my card; I've done something similar before but it was a much brighter version.

I punched out all the squares and adhered to Early Espresso card.  The flower was stamped in VersaMark onto a scrap of Early Espresso and then embossed in gold before being stuck to a Very Vanilla punched circle. I punched a hole in the circle with my Crop-a-dile before threading through some ribbon and tying it with linen thread.  This was all then fastened to my ivory card base.

Supplies
Stamp: Triple Treat Flower
Ink: VersaMark
Card: Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla
Paper: Mocha Morning Speciality Designer Series Paper
Other: Very Vanilla Velvet Designer Ribbon, linen thread, gold embossing powder, heat tool, postage stamp punch, Crop-a-dile

I've been tackling some awful jobs over the past few days.  You know the sort of jobs you put off for as long as you can.  Well, when we moved house we managed to unpack quite quickly but lots of empty boxes and lots of mess accumulated in the garage until it was impossible to move around in there.  Two days of hard graft and it is clean and tidy.  And I must admit I do feel rather satisfied with it.  I might make the most of this feeling and clear out my crafting corner as well as it's getting a bit messy...  I wonder if Socks will help?

Thanks for visiting today and thank you all for your lovely comments.  It's lovely to visit you back and see what you have been up to!

Happy Birthday To Socks and Me!

Today I have a card not made by me: as it's my birthday, I thought I'd put my feet up!  About a year ago, my husband finally got all the hints about handmade cards being more special and now, three times a year, he requisitions my craft supplies for an evening to make my birthday, wedding anniversary and Christmas cards.  Apart from a minor amount of panic as he asks for help finding various adhesives or scissors, and a minor amount of amusement when he asks questions like "and where is your really bright paper?", it really is a treat that he makes my cards for me!

So today I am sharing his birthday card to me:

He really liked my Stampin' Write marker pens, pulling out a whole array of bright colours which made me wonder what on earth he was making!  I knew he'd finished the outside with the question "where is that thing you use to make cards flatter?" but then he had me worried when he asked "and how many different cat stamps do you have and where do you keep them all?"  We're both cat mad in this house!  But check out his amazing colouring with the blender pen - it's better than I can do!

Today is also our nominated birthday for Socks as we collected him from the rescue centre a year ago to this day!  It's amazing to think what a big place our little fur ball has in our lives!  I think he knew it was our birthday today as he let me have a lie-in... very much appreciated, Socks, thank you!  He's radiator hugging at the moment as it's so windy outside.

I wanted to do something to celebrate my birthday with my blogland friends, but I'm not a fan of candy... I follow people because I like what I see and I hope the same goes for me!  So it isn't much, but I would like to send someone in the UK a free Idea Book & Catalogue (RRP £5.95) as whether or not you are as crazy about Stampin' Up! as me, the Idea Book really is jam packed full of ideas and is bound to spark creativity.

I didn't want to exclude my blogland friends beyond our shores, so I would also like to send someone a little handmade something as I'd send you all something if I could.  If you're interested in either, just say so in a comment.  I will draw two names from a hat tomorrow night.

Now, what to do today to celebrate.... I think I might have a little craft!

Thanks for visiting,

Not A Card!

One of my 2012 resolutions is to start scrapbooking and I have finally got myself organised to give it a go!  Now 12x12 seemed just a little intimidating to my card-sized brain so I decided to follow a sketch and a colour scheme to break me in gently.

The sketch has come from a blog I came across yesterday called The Paper Girls, a relatively new scrapbooking challenge blog.  And as for the colour scheme, well, I really liked the colour combination at Colour Q this week (a challenge I've been watching for a few weeks but have yet to take part in), but it's only on writing this post that I have realised I pulled out a sheet of Pacific Point paper from the Brights stack rather than Tempting Turquoise.  Duh!  Oh well, I think it works well anyway!

Here's my layout:

The main background is Pacific Point from the Brights Patterns Designer Series Paper, with Melon Mambo forming the main panel behind the photo. I thought it helped focus on the flowers in the photo.  The strip along the bottom is in Daffodil Delight with a length of Whisper White satin ribbon on top.  The title was computer generated and cut out with my handy paper snips.  Finally, I stamped my Triple Treat Flower stamp several times, coloured with markers and layered up with dimensionals to embellish.

Here are some close-up shots:

Supplies
Stamp: Triple Treat Flower
Ink: Basic Black; Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Certainly Celery markers
Card:  Whisper White
Paper: Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo from the Brights Patterns Designer Series Paper
Other: 5/8" Whisper White satin ribbon


Thanks for all your kind wishes yesterday - they are very much appreciated.  Hope you like my first scrapbooking attempt!

Thanks for visiting,

Make My Mother's Day Monday!

Another Monday... where do those weekends go?  I'm honoured to be guest designer over at Make My Monday this month.  This week is the next instalment of their 'Spring' theme with 'Mother's Day' or 'Thank You'.  Of course I had to make my mum her Mother's Day card.  I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to make a nesting card as I've always wanted to have a go at these.

I chose Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery as the colours for my three layers.  Each layer interlocks with the other, so when you pull the brad, the three layers all emerge.

The top layer is a photo of my family when my brother and I were just wee bairns!  I think we were on holiday in Minorca when it was taken.  The second layer is a verse and the bottom layer is where I went crazy with a stamp!

The stamp in question is Triple Treat Flower, a single stamp from the à la carte range in the catalogue.  I stamped the central flower first of all, before masking it off and stamping the rest of the background.  I stamped two extra flowers onto Whisper White card stock to cut up and use to decoupage the central flower.  I absolutely love the pattern created by this stamp, and the fact that it is really easy to pick out layers to decoupage with.

To colour it, I used my blender pen and several ink pads.  If you've never used a Stampin' Up! blender pen before, it is so easy to work with.  I squidged (a technical term) some ink from my pad onto the bottom lid (Stampin' Up! ink pads have the inky bit facing down for storage so the ink stays at the top of the pad - clever, huh?).  Then all I did was pick up the ink with the blender and add it to the stamped panel.  I did this with Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight and Real Red.

Hopefully Mum will like her card!  Here are a couple of close-up shots of the bottom panel:

Supplies

Stamp: Triple Treat Flower

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black

Card: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Early Espresso

Other: brad

It's still Sale-a-bration at Stampin' Up! where you can get stamp sets or designer paper for free when you place an order for £45.  There's a terrific choice - have a look here if you want to see what you can earn.  Placing an order couldn't be easier: just send me an email or give me a ring on 07977 141605.  I have a couple of special offers running to celebrate the start of my SU venture.  I will pay P&P for my first three orders (that's £4.95 you're saving) and every order received before the end of March will go into a prize draw to win a whole set of Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend and you don't have that Monday feeling!  It'd be great if you could join in with the Make My Monday challenge so why not pop over to the blog for some inspiration from the DT and then indulge in a lovely moment of creativity?!

Thanks for visiting,