Open House Crafting Event - Monday 12th October

As it's that time of year again, I will be holding another Open House Crafting Event, again at my house in Gloucester, to showcase the new SU Catalogue and it's new Products - on Monday 12th October 2009 (yes the date has changed!)

Just pop by anytime between 10am-3pm and also later that day from 7-9pm to see the new 2009/2010 Idea Book and Catalogue with October Specials, Samples, new Stamps & Accessories to try out with free Makes n' Takes and a couple of prizes on offer; plus coffee, chat and cakes!

You can stay for as little or as long as you like, and please feel free to bring a friend or two along.

Su

Belated Christmas Card!

Yes - I am belatedly posting my final Christmas Card design - one that I was happy with for mass-producing - and it wasn't the one I previously posted! The last couple of weeks have been completely manic - but as always we had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you did too.

I hope most people got theirs before Christmas - but no doubt some were late. (New year's resolution - to start my Christmas cards in August! LOL!)

I got the idea from Jacki (The Card Castle) who used the Baby Words Cuttlebug Embossing folder with a crib image - thanks Jacki, everybody has loved it! The scanned image doesn't do it justice really, but I am sure you get the idea - the crib stamp was from the nativity clear set from Lakeland.

I made around 60 cards in 3 sittings. A much reduced number due to sending an e-greeting to most people we know.

And yes the e-greeting contained an image of a crib, but also a link to our family Elf Show. If you've not yet seen one of these (I've been Elfed!) it's well worth a look - so hilarious, and you can custom-make your own: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1452243874 (To get the right bodies, you need to upload your face photos in the following order: DW, DD, DS, DH.)

Card Layout

Yesterday I was looking to make a lilac card with layers and finally came up with the following card, which once thought out, took no time at all. Do you find that 3/4 of your time is taken up with thinking about what design of card to use and then finding all the right materials, stamps, etc? I certainly do! I keep telling myself when I hit on a good one, I should make up a batch of at least 5, to make good use of all that thinking and prep.time.

Anyway, here is the card and I like it so much, I will make more - when I have time - and I also plan to use the same design using different stamps and colour cardstock to see how many different looks I can come up with! I've done a plan of the card layout, so I - and you can reproduce it - what do you think?

Lilac piece of card with torn edge - stamped with Rubber Stampede Daisy blossom flower and Artifacts small flowers stamps - in Brilliance Pearlescent Lavender, then matted onto Navy card piece with torn edge - all edges inked. Lavender organza ribbon wrapped around the finished matt, then piece stuck to Lavender base card. Just Thinking of You (Rubber Stampede again) stamped onto piece of lilac, matted onto Navy and then this finally matted onto card to. Finished off with some irridescent glitter in the flower centres.

Realistically, I probably won't be able to do any more of these this week! But check me out this time next week - and let me know if the layout helps you too!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I've had to move over all my stuff to a new blog, so there will be a few posts on each day as I get it all sorted. I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and enjoy the cards I post here, hopefully along with tutorials & projects, templates, best buys and my favourite place links.

I recently made a few cards using the lovely Footprints (in the Sand) stamp, by Inkadinkado. Used a Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue inkpad - on dark blue grained cardstock (this colour always looks so fab inked on dark cardstock.) Then used a ruler to tear around the sides and stuck it down onto mottled white cardstock which I had first run through my Big Shot using the D'Vine Swirls cuttlebug embossing folder (if you haven't tried the cuttlebug embossing folders yet - do, they a wonderful - I will blog about them later - for card inspiration try http://sentimentsbydenise.typepad.com/!) Some silver organza ribbon highlighted each corner - then stuck whole thing onto dark blue A6 folded card using double-sided 3D foam tape. For writing on the inside, I used a silver gel pen, which worked really well.

Here is another variation on this card - without the ribbon and instead roughly tearing around the stamped image.

Tell me - which version do you prefer?

My last card here was made for my husband's Gran - she's 92, so I wanted something a little traditional (a flower!) but was also vibrant, 3D and that she would enjoy looking at. Used the huge Ellison Thick Cuts Flower Daisy#2 (which is the same as the new Sizzix Bigz Die - Flower, Daisy #3) with some fabulous bright pink grained paper (unbranded) to cut out 4 flowers - stuck down with double-sided tape and curled the ends of the petals. Several leaves cut with a Sizzix Medium Leaves die and letters from the Sizzix Sizzlits Girls Are Weird alphabet set - both in pale green cardstock. Finished off with a few pink flower brads in the middle and some thin pink organza ribbon. All mounted on a white square card, trimmed to a deckle edge using the Edgemaster/Carl Rotary Trimmer. Pink and pretty!