A drama & a diorama......

I had well and truly abandoned the keyboard and even my scissors, over the past couple of weeks!

My mojo had left me, it had gone on a 'long haul' holiday, not only was my back still niggling me but last Thursday farmer Johnnie had an appointment with the MRI  scanner, after his run in with a wayward wheel barrow over the festive period, and even though he looks like he as tough as anything, he needed some support, as they were sticking needles in him, in a very sensitive area too!

Any way with attendance at SU mum- Julie's training event, on Saturday, I was planning to force myself to sit at my desk, later on the Thursday night and come up with something for a swap, well a headache struck and with Farmer Johnnie feeling sorry for himself too, we only managed a cup of tea and some painkillers, so Friday came and Johnnie even though still hobbling donned his boiler suit and got back on the farm and I had to get my swaps done.... 

Well after a little faffing around and poking at bits of stuff I had started on ages ago, and squashing the massive box of rubbish at feet into a smaller pile, I came up with an idea- a friend and regular hostess, Linda King, had posted on their fb page (click here to see) a lovely diorama card, she had made, featuring the 'Spring Mini' stamp set- 'Marry Me'. Well at the training we had to focus on using some top secret SU stash ;-) and so my swap was created using lots of secrets, but was a diorama too!  

And today in honour of Linda Kings inspiration, and mojo boost, I have done my take on a 'Marry me' diorama, and I have included the discreet use of two new products that 'Stampin' Up!' are launching on the first of May!! I can't name the new products I have used, but everything else used will be given a label, so a little guessing is involved!!!

A colour combination of 'Pink Pirouette', 'Very Vanilla' & 'Basic Grey',

the card base was created from one A4 sheet of  card stock,

It was given a makeover with some simple score lines and and a bit of cutting with the 'Big Shot!' ;-)

 The set contains 6 stamps, one of which is this beautiful quote by William Shakespeare

 The front of the aperture was given a little stamping with the simple flower stems that are included in the 'Marry me' set, and some little punched 'Itty Bitty' flowers and SU gems added a nice touch.

 For the centre piece of the diorama I stamped the main bride & groom stamp, from the 'Marry Me' set and cut it out with a 'new tool' and my SU 'Big Shot'!!! ;-)

 I created some curled paper flowers out of 'Very Vanilla' card stock and dusted their edges with the 'Pink Pirouette' Ink, I also gave them lacy doily petticotes, using the 'triple layer doily punch'.

 I embossed the very back panel of the diorama, with the 'Manhattan Flowers' embossing folder and used my 'two way glue pen' & 'Dazzling Diamonds Glitter' to add a little sparkle, I also added a couple of pins with some 'Pink Pirouette' punched 'Itty bitties' on the end.

Here is a birds eye view of the diorama.

I am glad, I spent time crafting today, it was great to combine something old, with something new....

Also thank you for sticking with me through diorama & dramas XX

Details on the lovely SU stamp set 'Marry Me' that I have used today can be found in the link to the top right of this post, which takes you to an on-line copy of the 'Spring Mini'........

Remember that the UK 'Spring Mini' ends monday 30th of May,

and even us demo's are not told what, if anything out of it, is going to be carried over to future product lists...

So my advice is get it, while you can!

From Friday I will be placing orders every evening, till the close of sales on Monday night,

and what's more is that if you spend £45 or more, you are eligible for a free pack of DSP.

Contact me to find out more:

sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. No: 07891605129

Taking Flight!

As on Sunday, it was the Christening of my littlest cousin Mia, who just turned One in June! On Saturday, I tried to make a card for the occasion, but my 'mojo' failed me! So I was very happy when it returned with the help of Victoria, early on Sunday morning!!
At our team training at the start of the month, the lovely Victoria Rogers had designed some fab Lay outs to go in shadow frames, using the SU square punches, now unfortunately for me, I don't 'yet' have the square punches, and had put this project idea on the back burner even though, I had sourced the fantastic frames.
check out her blog: http://bluejellystampin.blogspot.com/
So when when sat at my desk, the frame was there 'staring' me in the face! And I thought 'ooo' it doesn't have to be a square punch and the butterfly idea took flight!
I did a bit of 'two-step stampin' using my much loved but under used 'Stampin' Up!- Flight of the Butterfly' stamp set and the tool of perfect stamp placement-the 'Stamp-a-ma-jig'! Using all the scraps of whisper white card that I cannot bear to throw away!
The colour of ink used for the block wing colours were 'Melon Mambo' & 'Pink Pirouette' and because this stamp set has a co-ordinating punch, this project was scissor free! The butterflies were then given a slight fold to the wings, and stuck to a base of 'textured Whisper White' card using wet adhesive. I choose to stick mine in a heart shape, with them going all which ways, hopefully making them look like they have come to rest like that randomly!!
I added a hand journalled tag, that noted the date of the christening and Mia's full name, that was punched out of another scrap of 'Whisper White' SU card, using the decorative label punch. I sponged 'Melon Mambo' ink to the edges, so that it co-ordinated with the rest of the project.

I used the spare butterflies to decorate a brown paper bag, in which we gave the frame in. As I had added the personal details to the frame, I decided not to make a card and wrote a personal greeting to the reverse of the frame, hoping that it will become a decoration for Mia's bedroom.

I must say that given the cloudy start to the day, the sun shone for the garden party that followed the christening at church and it was great to get together with family and celebrate. Mia was so adorable in her Christening gown and hopefully a few of the pictures I have taken will make it to some scrapbooking layouts.

Three Deers!

No I am not referring to my friends and I, out shopping...... as according to my daughter Heather- I am 'Middle Aged'! But today's blog offering....And Sorry, but while the inspiration is there, you have to go with the flow.........so yes this is another Christmas in July post!

While all hyped up with Christmas craft I made a selection of gift bags/ boxes, the lovely snowflake card for all three came from just one sheet of the A4 whisper white card that had been given the 'all over' stamp treatment with the delightful 'Serene snowflakes Stampin' Up!' stamp set.

The chosen ink colours were- 'Night of navy', 'Pink pirouette', 'Bashful Blue' & 'Perfect Plum', and it was just a case of totally covering the white A4 sheet with the stamped images, when stamping any image to totally cover an area, it always looks best if you stamp the image going off the edge of the piece.

Once I had made up the bags/ boxes, I used the lovely 'Al la carte' stamp 'Dasher' as the main decoration, the little 'merry' sentiment came from the 'Tiny Tags' SU stamp set and the decorative label 'do not open..' & 'Santa post' both came from the 'Winter Post' SU stamp set. Some of the 'Dasher' images were cropped down using a punch and for the larger bag, it was mounted onto some 'Night of Navy' card and the 'Scallop' edge punch was used as decoration along the bottom.

If you would like further details of how these bags/ boxes were folded or would like to purchase any of the supplies used then please do contact me: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

Also was it one of those strange days were we all forget the most important things yesterday?? last night at 'creative cafe' I had forgotten my Acrylic block & 'Stamp-a-ma-jig', Anyway we got by and had fun crafting together too! I will be back tomorrow with a none Christmas related offering..........I promise xx