Is it really???!!

OK is it really the first official day of the summer hols.....yep! Is it really the millionth time my darling angels have had a noisy disagreement....yep! Is it really my craft desk under a mountain of rubbish, junk and bits of paper....yep! And it is really another Christmas project I am showing you,....yep....In July!!

Apologies for my absence over the last couple of days, yesterday was spent taking Heather riding at the beach, Saturday was lost to taking Heather to choir, and Friday well it was the last day of summer term!

Anyway as I was having a five minute clear of my desk, I came across these Christmas cards. I made last week. And yes we do have glorious sunshine outside, I just thought I would show them now before they are lost in the craft room tidy up, I have planned this week!

The main focus of both cards is the lovely A la Carte 'Dasher' stamp from SU and a very bold colour scheme of 'Real Red', 'Basic Black' & 'Whisper White'.Both cards fit a C5 envelope, so are easy to send via the post.

For decoration On the vertical card, I used the 'Big Shot' and the lovely 'Vintage Wallpaper' SU embossing folder, matting and layering the main 'Dasher' image. I added the merry from the 'Stampin' Up!' 'Tiny Tags' set,punched with the 'jewellery Tag' punch.

The horizontal card has the 'Dasher' image stamped straight on to the card blank, with decoration added in with a strip of 'Basic Black' card that has been punched along the edge, with the 'Scallop Trim Punch'.

Again ribbon was added and the merry tag secured with a pin.

If you want to get ahead with your Christmas cards, I am more than happy to order your SU goodies and have them delivered to your door, so you too can get festive over the summer season!

Hopefully I will have created enough space to 'play', whilst tidying and will be back tomorrow with a none Christmas make!

Something different!

I have had a complaint..........can you believe it?? (hmm no pun intended!!) My friend Deborah has asked me to stop using the 'Just Believe' stamp set, she has seen enough of it!!!

So following feedback, here is something I made last night, it's a fold out book, I have made this for Heathers class parents to sign over this week, to say thanks to the class teacher.

It uses the gorgeous butterfly, from the 'Strength & Hope' SU charity set and also the rose frame from 'Four Frames' in the mini catalogue. The colour combination is 'Pear Pizzazz', 'Blushing Bride', 'Basic Black' & 'Whisper White'.

The boards for the front & back of the book were covered with pieces of 'Pear Pizzazz' designer series Papers.To add depth the base layer of the decorated panel was ran through the 'Big Shot' using the 'Vintage wallpaper' embossing folder, I then sponged the 'blushing bride' ink in from the edges to highlight the embossing.

I wanted to create a college style decoration for the top of the book, so I used the rose frame and a little masking to create a base layer, stamped in 'basic black', the roses and leaves were coloured using the 'pear pizzazz' & 'Blushing Bride' ink.

I stamped the butterfly twice and trimmed around them, these were given some shape in the wings using a 'bone folder' and then mounted to the rose frames panel, and some lovely SU jewels were added, to the bodies.

The sentiment banner was created by stamping the 'Thank you' (can you guess which SU stamp set I took it from??!!) and then using the 'Stamp-a-ma-jig' to use the edge of the 'rose frame' stamp to add decoration, the roses and leaves were coloured as before.

Now comes the inside fold out.......now it does look tricky, but if I can do it anyone can! You start with 3 squares of white card and you score them and join, together to make fold out pages. I have taken lots of shots of this so you can see the score lines and were they are 'valleys & mountains'!

The decoration of this was kept really simple and just the butterfly was stamped around the edge, in groups of two, in black ink. I did this before it was stuck to the covers, so the back of the fold out could be decorated in the same way too.

The back board was left plain, as a ribbon from my stash that was used as a closure for the book, looks nice tied across this.

Apologies for the photos, I took them under the day-light lamp in the 'wee hours' of this morning, as I wanted to start getting it signed today, If you would like to know dimensions etc. please email me and I will gladly share what I know.

I will be back tomorrow, with more Christmas in July! I had a very wet drive across to 'Pudsey', on Saturday, to meet many of my SU family and do 'Team Training'. I have come back fired up with lots of Christmas ideas, it was a fantastic day with inspiring people, and brilliant events like that add to the enormous pleasure that SU brings to me. xXXx