French Foilage Frenzy!!

November is going to be a month of madness.....well more of a frenzy of activity, action & excitement!

Its 12 days until my good friend- Katies', charity ball, in aid of the 'North West Air Ambulance' and I have a table plan to make, and then it's only 16 days until I set off on my first ever trip to the 'Stampin' Up!' convention, this year it is being held in Paris. It will also be the first time I have flown or been abroad, so I am more than a little excited!!

Whilst waiting for some 'Crystal Effects' to dry on an altered Jewellery piece, I was making this morning, I decided to put to use, a sheet of card I had stamped the other week, after being inspired by a lovely swap by Jules Kirkham, check out her blog: www.ribbonkisses.blogspot.com

Well here is my card, and yes its another big one, it will fit a C5 envelope though!!

This leaves, splats, text & postal frank are all from the lovely 'French Foliage' stamp set, it's quite apt that this is the stamp set I am featuring while gushing about my excitement at the Paris Convention!!The sentiment came from the 'Petite Pairs' Stamp set, I stamped both parts together, and punched out and stamped and inked around the edges.The base layer of 'Sahara Sand' was stamped with matching ink to add depth and a strip of 'Whisper White' card stock, was embossed with the lovely Square lattice embossing folder, and the lovely New 'In Colour ink pad- Pool Party' was sponged along the edge, a few of the lovely SU pearls were added for interest too!Simply decoration was added to the inside of the card base, again stamping colour on colour, makes a nice surprise for the recipient and takes the hassle of sticking in an insert!I hope you like my make and thanks to Jules Kirkham, for the inspiration, this was a stamp set that I had so over looked, but beleive that it will now become one of my favourites! xXx

Flying the flag......

Today I am posting the card that I made for Heather to give Matthew, she does sometimes help but she has been busy over the holidays doing horsey jobs. The card is quite large for me and the base layer is made from an A4 sheet of 'Baja Breeze' SU cardstock, folded in half to make a card with a A5 front, and do you recognise the design??

The design/ layout is taken from a card we made at training with Julie, and I just re-worked it to fit a larger card. The only try-ing bit was getting my 'Square Lattice Embossing Folder' to emboss an area that is larger than the folder its self, this meant take the card through the 'Big Shot' twice, just repositioning the folder and not winding over the embossing you did first.....it did take me two attempts....and in folders with such a ridged pattern you may see a join line, but the finished effect was pleasing!

I even decorated the inside to match the front, I had some discontinued Patterened papers to use up to make the bunting for the card front and had also stamped and punched a few with co-ordinating Ink pad & the scalloped edge bunting stamp, from 'Pennant Parade'. I so love it that SU takes the hassle out of getting things to co-ordinate, and at a recent workshop I demonstrated at, I really flew the flag..... that SU have really thought about what they do and that its great that you can easily get everything you need for a project that matches and co-ordinates perfectly, not just paper cards & inks, but finishing touches such as buttons, brads & ribbons too! So I just carried a similar decoration over to the inside, the sentiment came from a new set 'Petite Pairs', I like these as on a smaller card you can put part of the sentiment on the front of your card and the other bit on the inside, or maybe if you have made a larger card like me, use the 'Stamp-a-ma-jig' and put it all on the inside!

I made a little rosette for the front on which I put a greeting from the 'Pennant Parade' stamp set.Here you can see that the large birthday greeting, taken from 'Curly Cute' is layered on a strip of card. on top of the embossing, and how 'Crumb Cake' ink has been sponged around the edges of the white to take the glare off.On the blog candy draw for yesterday, I have had over 20 entries so far, I do have to check my spam box though!! I will be back tomorrow with the draw. xXx

Long time no see!!!!!!!

Hello, sorry about the lack of posts, my craft 'Mojo' left me and I have been busy doing 'Mum' stuff while Heather and Matty, are on their summer Hols!

Last night though, it came back to me in a flash of inspiration......well I had been jigging over a Layout with the 'Just Believe' Stampin' Up! stamp set for a bit, and when I finally put stamp to paper it all just came together!

When I had finished the 12x12" base, I had a look through my box of photo's and came across this one of 'Foxy....sunday name Foxglove!' she is our beautiful 'so grey- she is white' pony, she taught Heather how to ride, and 'Baggins' that wheelie bins and blue garden plants won't kill you! Anyway if I told you were she was when I took this photo, of her with heather and Matty...you would think I was crazy....well, yes, I am! And yes, she was in the living room!
I used some more of the 'Marina Mist' ink refill, diluted and misted over the card to add colour to the 12x12" textured Whisper White card.A few splats were add, by flicking the plastic tube in the spritzer accross the page.....
WARNING>>>MAKE SURE YOUR SURFACES ARE COVERED AS IT GOES FURTHER THAN YOU THINK!!!I felt that the base page needed something to draw the eye from the decoration at the bottom, to up and across the page so added a few butterflies from the 'Strength & Hope' SU stamp set.
I then created a wide matt for the photo using the same butterfly, by stamping it in 'Basic Black' around the edge of a piece of the textured white card, I also dragged the ink pad around the edge of the card to define it.
For the title, I die-cut the lettering using the 'Timeless Type' alphabet dies. I stuck the title to a piece of 'Whisper White' card that had been die-cut, using the 'Top-Note' die and then folded in half.

To add more texture to the letters, I embossed them using the 'Square Lattice' embossing folder, I also added a little stamping to the die-cut!And the reason for folding the 'Top-note' die cut in half...well it gave me a little area to add some journalling...well I don't want the whole world to knew that i had a pony in the living room! ;-)Don't forget about the fantastic offer from 'Stampin' Up!' if you place an order for £75 or over, or host a workshop with sales totalling over £250 before P&P, you get the fantastic cosmetics tote, ribbon and clips, so everyone gets a chance of this offer I am placing weekly orders myself, so email me to find out more. xxx