Bingo with Addicted to Stamps

It's time to play crafty bingo again as part of our new challenge at Addicted to Stamps.  I had a bit of a mental block with this one, not sure why, so I decided to get out Everything Eleanor for a play as it's been a bit neglected recently.

Here is what I made:

using the line flowers - emboss - ribbon from the Bingo card below.

I stamped two of the flower images in Bravo Burgundy onto Whisper White card and then coloured them in using more Bravo Burgundy and my aquapainter.  I cut them out and added pearls onto the stamens.  The main panel of the card was run through my BigShot with my ever-favourite lattice embossing folder and mounted onto Bravo Burgundy.  The horizontal panel as punched out and then Whisper White organza ribbon was layered on top, before the flowers were popped on top on dimensionals.

Supplies

Stamps: Everything Eleanor

Ink: Bravo Burgundy

Card: Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy

Other: Whisper White organza ribbon, pearls, lattice embossing folder, Big Shot, aquapainter, Leafy Lace border punch (non-SU)

We can't wait to see what you come up with for our second bingo challenge, so hop over to the ATS blog to check the Design Team's inspiration and then show us what you've got!

You'll be pleased to know I survived cleaning my kitchen out.  I loathe doing it, but it's a nice to know that every cupboard is spotless and that my oven is sparkling!  With my 'kitchen fairy' duties fresh in my mind, here is today's cat picture:

I know a lot of you like little updates about Socks, the lovely furball in my life.  Over the past week he's not been very well and the vet believes he is a carrier of the calicivirus.  We've only just found out because he's had a flare-up with painful mouth ulcers and now constant sneezing.  He's on antibiotics and has had some injections, but he's not himself at all at the moment, so if you could spare a thought for him, that'd be lovely.  Our pets are part of the family, aren't they?

Thanks as ever for visiting,

Less is More with Everything Eleanor

I found the Less is More challenge quite tricky this week, as we are instructed to take inspiration from their blog header.  It is a lovely blog header, but I just wasn't sure what to do with it!  In the end I decided to go with Everything Eleanor and use the colours, the flourish, the flowers and the gems from the header.

Here is what I did:

I stamped the flourish to begin with and then stamped the frame on another bit of Crumb Cake, before drawing around it and cutting out a slighter bigger frame in gold for an extra layer.  The sentiment is from Faith in Nature, while the small flowers are from the ever so useful Itty Bitty Shapes punch set.  The butterflies are, of course, those of Embosslits fame.  A few rhinestones and three score lines at the top finished off the card.

Supplies
Stamp: Everything Eleanor, Faith in Nature (sentiment)
Ink: Basic Black
Card: Basic Black, Crumb Cake, gold card (non SU - using up some scraps from last Christmas!)
Other: Embosslits Beautiful Wings, Itty Bitty Shapes Punches, rhinestones, Simply Scored board


As always, if these or any other SU goodies have caught your eye, please do not hesitate to drop me an email or give me a ring on 07977 141605.  I will be delighted to assist you with your crafty makes and to place an SU order for you.  Remember that all orders of £45 or more qualify for free organdie ribbon and Everyday Enchantment brads!  Click here for details.

Another day, another cat picture:

A big wave hello to my new followers: Sue from Sue's Card Craft, Lena from Lena's Crafts, Carys from CarysL Cards and Squirrel from SQUirrel's INK.  Socks and I are delighted to have you join the Furry Tale party!

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Hooting for the Stars!

My brother's girlfriend has just found out that she's got a 2:i for her degree and we're so proud of her!  This was the perfect opportunity to make a graduation owl like the one here.  This was soooo much fun to make!

I followed the sketch at Fetch a Sketch which I found very versatile to use.  The owl was made by a combination of the Owl Punch and the Cupcake Builder Punch (which has been retired, I'm afraid).  The owl was mostly made in the usual way, with the main owl punched out of Crumb Cake.  The wings are the icing from the Cupcake Punch.. clever, eh?!  I drew the mortarboard by hand.  The scroll is just a rolled up scrap of paper tied with linen thread.  The owl is positioned on the swirl from Everything Eleanor, which I think works ever so well as a branch.

The papers are absolutely gorgeous - the bottom layer is velvet flocked and so lovely to stroke.  The fact that it is made in the colours Crumb Cake and Basic Black makes coordination a doddle!  Here a side view that shows the dimension a little more:

Supplies
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Basic Black
Card: Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, More Mustard
Paper: Mocha Morning Speciality Designer Series Paper
Other: Crumb Cake 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, linen thread, stamp-a-ma-jig, dimensionals, Owl Punch, Cupcake Builder Punch

I'd also like to enter this card into the "We're feeling punchy!t challenge at The Friday Mashup and the "For the Birds" challenge at Stampin' Up Only!

As always, if these or any other SU goodies have caught your eye, do get in touch either by phone on 07977 141605 or email.  I'd be delighted to assist you with your crafty makes and place an SU order for you.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend whatever you're up to!  Thanks so much for stopping by,

Our Wedding Anniversary

Today is one of the three occasions a year you get to see my husband's handiwork as well as my own, as today is our second wedding anniversary!

Here is Sam's masterpiece.  He took the greatest care even with the envelope:

From a clever bit of masking on the outside of the card...

... to selecting a suitably embarrassing photo on the inside!  I've airbrushed out what he wrote so you sticky beaks can't read it!!

Considering he's made about 5 cards in his life, I'm a little in awe of him!  But then he does point out that he has an excellent local SU demo!

Here is what I made for him:

Mrs. Owl even has a diamond on her ring wing:

Mr & Mrs Owl were made using my owl punch and are perched upon the swirl from Everything Eleanor, stamped in Pear Pizzaz.  The banner is made from a scrap of Twitterpated paper and the base is Crumb Cake card.  I'm not going to do my usual supplies list as we'll all go a bit mad from reading that for both cards, but do get in touch if you have any questions about what we've used!

Have a lovely day!  Thanks so much for visiting,

Faux Pressed Flowers

Is there anything my Big Shot can't do?  Well, it's not so good at housework or at producing chocolate for me to scoff at random points of the day, but apart from that, it's a pretty nifty bit of kit!  One of my favourite embossing folders of all time is the wonderful lattice work and today I've used it to make a card for Mynnette's Technique Tuesday challenge which, this month, is the faux pressed flowers technique.

I followed the sketch at Mojo Monday, but just couldn't make the ribbon work at the top so I moved it to the bottom, which given that I didn't particularly want a sentiment, worked better for me.  Hope this is allowed!

Here's what I came up with:

I wanted to try the faux pressed flowers technique with smaller flowers because I thought they would look good on the glorious swirl from Everything Eleanor.  I'm really pleased with the result.  I added tiny pearls to the centres, which was a bit of an exercise in patience!  This is such an easy yet effective technique.  Here's a close-up of the embossing:

Supplies
Stamps: Everything Eleanor
Ink: Pear Pizzaz
Card: Blushing Bride, Baja Breeze, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Naturals Ivory
Paper: Twitterpated Designer Series Paper
Other: Blushing Bride Pleated Ribbon, Twitterpated Designer Buttons, Island Indigo Baker's Twine

As always, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to place an SU order or have any questions about SU supplies.  I'd be delighted to help you!  Just give me a ring on 07977 141605 or drop me an email.


Thanks so much for stopping by.  A special thanks if you leave a comment - then I can return the compliment!

Christmas Layout

It might be April but I've been looking for a different use for some of my Sale-a-bration papers that I have left and the rich red of one paper made me think of Christmas... so I printed off our Christmas tree photo and set about turning it into a layout.  I'm still new to all this scrapbooking lark so I followed the 'big picture' challenge at Use Your Stuff and a layout in Scrap 365 magazine that I treated myself to at the weekend so as not to scare myself too much.

It's a lot harder taking photos of a 12x12 than a card but here is the finished layout:

I measured out my SAB paper to fit the width of the textured Chocolate Chip base layer, adding in eyelets with my Crop-a-dile.  Do you know this is the first time I've used my Crop-a-dile for this?  Normally it's just an elaborate and rather expensive hole punch!  I threaded wool through the eyelets like in the magazine layout.

Now can you guess how I made the border pieces?  SU are bringing out the Framelits dies in the Summer Mini Catalogue, and I drew around the top edge of one repeatedly and cut out.  The rest of the layout is fairly self-explanatory: adding in layers of Chocolate Chip textured card, more red SAB paper and die-cut striped Crumb Cake patterned paper.  The little robin at the bottom of my journalling is from Everything Eleanor.

The tag at the bottom has been made with the coordinating stamp set 'Apothecary Art' which goes perfectly with the new Framelits dies!  I do love how SU makes everything work together!  The flowers were coloured with my blender pen and Riding Hood Red and Old Olive marker pens.  Then both frames were chopped in half and lined up with the bottom edge of the layout.

Supplies

Stamps: Apothecary Art (available from May 1st), Everything Eleanor

Inks: Chocolate Chip, marker pens in Real Red, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive and Soft Suede

Card: textured Chocolate Chip

Paper: retired Sale-a-bration Everyday Enchantment (sorry!), Crumb Cake from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper stack

Other: eyelets, Crop-a-dile, wool, stamp-a-ma-jig, Framelits dies (available from May 1st)

Do let me know if I can be of any help with SU supplies... and if you'd like a paper copy of the Summer Mini Catalogue posting to you, just drop me an email.

No funny tales to share with you today so I'll leave you with a bad joke instead:

Why is 6 scared of 7?

Because 7 ate 9 and 10...

Many thanks as always for visiting,

When Everything Eleanor Met Patterned Paper

I've been eager to join in the challenges at Colour Q for a while now, but for one reason or another, this is the first time I'm participating.  And what lovely colours they are.  I don't have any of the in-colours so had to substitute Baja Breeze in for Pool Party but I still think it's a lovely combination.

Over the past few days I have been playing around with some of the new stamp sets available with the launch of the Summer Mini on May 1st and I might just have some sneaky peeks for you later this week... If you are in the UK and would like a paper copy of the Summer Mini Catalogue posting to you, send me a quick email or give me a ring on 07977 141605.  The PDF copy will be linked to my sidebar on May 1st.

For today's card though, I have been enjoying the lovely flourishes, frames and flowers that make up the gorgeously sophisticated Everything Eleanor.  Here's what I came up with for the challenge:

The frame was stamped in Baja Breeze and cut out with my trusty sharp paper snips, with the sentiment stamped in Bravo Burgundy using my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  The two flowers were stamped into Ivory card, cut out, and the stamens coloured with a Baja Breeze marker pen.  I just can't get enough of that flourish at the moment... this time it was stamped in Bravo Burgundy onto some Very Vanilla patterned paper, and I love the two tone effect this has given to the stamping.  The frame and flowers were popped up on dimensionals.

I felt the colours needed tying together a bit more so I layered first onto Baja Breeze and then onto Bravo Burgundy.  Then just because I felt like it, I added a layer of beautiful textured Very Vanilla card to pick out the vanilla stripes on the paper.  All-in-all I'm rather pleased with the result!

Supplies
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Pumpkin Pie, Baja Breeze
Card: textured Very Vanilla, Bravo Burgundy, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Naturals Ivory
Paper: Very Vanilla from the Neutrals Designer Series Patterned Paper
Other: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Baja Breeze marker pen

I have started to sort out my crafting corner.  It's slow work as I keep getting distracted by things I'd forgotten about.  Socks has been getting involved too, keeping my pile of Craft Stamper magazines warm with his furry behind!

Thanks for visiting Socks and me today,

These are a Few of my Favourite Things...

I have a new favourite stamp set and a new favourite builder punch that I have combined to make today's card.  Everything Eleanor is an incredibly versatile stamp set complete with flourish, frame, flowers and more.  I can see so many uses for this set already.  I was determined to use it to make a card for a challenge this week, but then I also wanted to play with my new owl builder punch.  This fellow has been tempting me for months and I gave in and bought him with some of my birthday pennies.

Here is what I came up with:

My starting point was the sketch from Simply Stampin'.  I stamped the flourish in Old Olive a couple of times along the bottom, before cutting the panel of Crumb Cake designer paper into three and inking the edges a little.  I then stamped the frame, positioning the greeting from Happiest Birthday Wishes where I wanted it with my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig.  The owl was so much fun to make and I can see him appearing on many future projects.  He is punched out of Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Whisper White and Basic Black card.  The three panels were adhered to a piece of Whisper White before being secured to the Naturals Ivory base.

Here's a close-up of the cheeky chap:

Supplies
Stamp: Everything Eleanor, Happiest Birthday Wishes
Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive
Card: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory, Basic Black, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Crumb Cake from Neutrals Designer Series Paper
Other: Owl Builder Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Speaking of cheeky chaps, this is what mine was doing earlier:

To the left of this photo was the ironing board and a big pile of ironing I was steadily making my way through.  I think he was just rubbing my nose in it!

Thanks for visiting today,