It's a Mocha Morning!

Good morning my lovely blogging friends, I hope you're having a good week.  Today's card combines the delicious colours of Crumb Cake and Early Espresso from Dynamic Duos and the sketch from Simply Stampin'... mmm... it's making me hungry already... and that's before I add Mocha Morning paper into the mix...

The image is from the lovely Tea Shoppe set and it looks great stamped in Early Espresso - it really picks out the detail of the cup.  I wanted to die cut the tea cup in a circle shape so I did some clever jiggery pokery to work part of the cup handle out of the die.  It's the first time I've done this and I was surprised at how easy it is.  Mocha Morning, a lovely set of papers in neutral tones, was made for these challenges so I was keen to wangle it in there.

Supplies

Stamps: Tea Shoppe

Ink: Early Espresso

Card: textured Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Whisper White

Paper: Mocha Morning Speciality Designer Series Paper

Other: Victoria crochet trim, border punch (non-SU), circle die and BigShot

The lovely thing (ok, one of the lovely things) about cats is that they know they are superior to us lowly humans, and they never miss an opportunity to prove it:

 Thanks so much for visiting my blog today - have a lovely day!

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,

Tying the Knot

There are some stamp sets that you see and you just *have* to have.... well, quite a lot of stamp sets in my case, but you know what I mean.  I don't usually buy stamp sets that are for a particular occasion - I like to get more bang for my buck (or, indeed, for my pound) but Love & Laughter in the new Summer Mini was calling out to me.  It is contemporary, stylish, so so elegant and... well... just plain beautiful!  I had to have it.

Here is a card made featuring the beautiful bridal gown:

I started by stamping the dress is Soft Suede ink onto paper vellum and adhering to a piece of gorgeous metallic paper from the Mocha Morning collection.  I spent a long time with different papers on my desk trying to decide which ones worked best together, but once I'd made my mind up, the card was very quick to put together.  I initially tied a bow with the ribbon (now retired - sorry!) but it looked too clunky so, as this is a wedding card, I just had to tie a knot!

Here's a close-up of that magnificent dress:

Supplies
Stamps: Love & Laughter
Ink: Soft Suede
Card: textured Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Paper: Mocha Morning Speciality Designer Series Paper
Other: pearls, Very Vanilla Velvet Designer Ribbon

I made the card following the rather lovely sketch at Retrosketches and I'd also like to enter this into Top Tip Tuesday's Clean & Simple challenge.  My tip is to consider careful placement of pearls and rhinestones to hide any adhesive when securing paper vellum or acetate... or, even better, use brads!

I mentioned yesterday that we had a busy weekend.  On Sunday afternoon I went down to the village tennis club's open day with an open mind... I have never played tennis before but my husband and I are looking for a summer sport given that the badminton club doesn't restart until October.  After an initial 30 minutes of trying to hold the racket like a badminton racket, I started to get into it.  The courts are lovely, right in the heart of the Lune Valley, and are at the end of a country lane so it was just us, tennis balls, afternoon tea and a spectator pheasant.  Life doesn't get any more British than that really.

Thanks for visiting,

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!