A little bit of a crafting break

I took a bit of a creative break work has been exceptionally busy and I have a few things going on that I need to find a few extra hours in the day - I'm sure we all struggle with that problem especially with the run up to Christmas which is coming round very quickly!

These are a set of cards (4) that I made a long time ago but never posted to the blog - it uses one of my favourite retired sets Growing Green and they are clean and simple.  They are in shades of green - River Rock, Certainly Celery and Old Olive with matching seam binding.  I used a variety of sentiments and very vanilla and river rock cardstock.

Butterfly fetish

Are you beginning to wonder if I have a butterfly fetish!!!  So many beautiful butterfly stamps and not one festive card in sight at the moment!!!  I just can't bring myself to make Christmas cards just yet .. think I had a christmas card overdose at the start of the month when all I made was snowmen and penguins!

This card uses some really pretty Stampin Up colours one of them I was so sad to see leave which was peach parfait I'm so glad I stocked up on this colour as I love it.  I used daffodil delight, calpyso coral and certainly celery for my butterflies.  Added some embossed detail one debossed to add something different some ribbon and a sentiment.

Dreaming of butterflies

This is the last of the set of butterfly cards that I made I had two really bright sunshine coloured ones and wanted to go for two contrasting but more subtle ones and this is what I came up with.  Same one layer design and layout for the butterflies and sentiment but colours this time were Stampin Up bashful blue, wisteria wonder and a beautiful pale lilac that was non Stampin Up.

Sweet Baby

I needed a baby card for a friend that has just given birth to a baby boy and just love this stamp set.  I took 3 of the animals from the set and stamped in Stampin Up colours daffodil delight and calypso coral for the lion, pool party for the elephant and lucky limeade for the giraffe.  I used one of my favourite cardstocks for baby cards which is the sadly retired confetti white - it just adds something else to the card which I love.  I took the heart and stamped on the animals and added two either side of the sentiment.

I really love how quickly this card came together and how quick and simple it was.

Another one sheet wonder

Again I used the one sheet wonder technique for this card - I need to improve my photography skills as every photo I take my cards/sentiments look drunk even when they are not!!

I just love the colours on this card - I used Stampin Up colours Wisteria Wonder, Pretty in Pink, Lucky Limeade, Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral I just love these colours together makes me think of sunshine and summer .. which seems such a distant memory ago!

One sheet wonder - Thinking of You

 

I love one sheet wonder cards - they are great when you want to make a set of matching cards in different designs but fundamentally using the same pattern.    You take one sheet of A4 I used Stampin Up Whisper white and you stamp over the whole thing using a stamp set .. or two of your choice you then have some great patterned paper that you can make several cards from.

I used the Stampin Up colours Not Quite Navy for my card base - its a standard A2 card.  I then used matching not quite navy ink, sahara sand for the leaves which really adds some subtle interest and is such a fab colour, poppy parade now sadly retired and daffodil delight.

Here's a close up of my main stamped panel.

 

Summer memories

 

This card is part of a set that I made you can find one of the other cards here.  I really enjoyed making this little set of cards as sometimes I forget just how much I do love to stamp.  Again I used several different stamp sets on this card but the same cardstock colours as previously.  I used one of my all time favourite stamp sets from Stampin Up that was a freebie if you spent over £45 and was called reason to smile I just loved this set and was sad that it was only available for a month.   I made a set of 4 cards and a little purse type box to keep them and give them as a gift I'll post the others throughout the week as well as showing the complete set.

I hope you like them :)

Butterfly Crazy

Two cards from me today both using the same design, different sentiments and the same Stampin Up colours - I used melon mambo, daffodil delight and tempting turquoise.  A plain simple one layer card I just love this butterfly set.

Another first

Another first for me some stamping BUT some embellishments that I usually shy away from using.  I used a beautiful doily on this card and stamped directly onto it as well as some lace to add a bit of interest.   I had the items out on my desk from my previous post and thought I'd try something different.  The colours are all the same just a different layout and design.

I can stamp .. honest

One of the things I love is stamping I have been fascinated and loved it for many many years now I first start stamping about 20 years ago .. gosh that makes me feel old I was in work and a colleague was sitting cutting out some images and I strolled over and was intrigued a million questions later and I was hooked and my love has developed from there.

One of the things I love to do is mix and match and experiment with different stamp sets - this one uses at least 4 different sets.  There are two different background stamps the fleur de lis and the moroccan background stamp all stamped in River Rock which is one of my favourite colours from Stampin Up.  I had great fun making this card and think all the sets work well together.  

I added a couple of punched butterflies and some pretty Stampin Up jewels I love the way they are just so bling and a touch of seam binding and an embossed panel.  I didn't add a sentiment as I'm not sure what I am going to use this card for yet but I made a set of them with a pretty box will I'll post later.

Something a little different

 

Well I scheduled a post yesterday as I knew I was going to be exceptionally busy and not able to get online .. did it work not a chance so here is yesterdays post which is something different for me.

I love the colours on this card I used lucky limeade, peach parfait, daffodil delight and pretty in pink with the sentiment in not quite navy.  The cardstock is confetti white I just love the flecks on this cardstock.  

I hope you like my card I really enjoyed making this one and it was nice to go a little different and not so CAS.

Less is More Challenge - Houses

Well if this wasn't a difficult challenge I don't know what is .. I made a complete boo boo I did not read the challenge correctly and my first card was not ONE LAYER so I went back to the drawing board!

The challenge this week was one layer with the theme of HOUSES!  This is my second attempt:

I kept it simple, but I wish my sentiment didn't look crooked as it took me so long to line it up on the block and get it straight  :( in real life it isn't I used a Stampin Up set that was not available in the UK called unchartered territory it has a light house, sentiment and a boat image.  I added some extra birds from the Up, up and away set.  I kept the colouring simple only adding dashes of colour with baja breeze, cherry cobbler, old olive.  The image looked like it needed something else so I added some shading with sahara sand which made it look a lot better.  The clouds you cant really see in the picture but there are some subtle clouds in the background.

Now this was the first card that I made that was not one layer .. I really should read the challenge before I whip up to the craft room

This is a very old SAB set from Stampin Up which had several houses, trees, clouds and the roofs for the houses.  This is the only stamping set that I own that has houses!  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink - I used the colours soft suede, old olive and cherry cobbler with some baja breeze and dazzling details for the clouds and added some lucky limeade bakers twine.

Butterfly Mania

What a beautiful autumnal day here in Aylesbury today the sun is shining, there is a crisp bite to the air I've been out and about doing shopping and went for a walk and have now done all the housework and washing ready for an afternoon in my craft room.  It was a busy week last week so its been nice to have a couple of days just chilling and recharging hence the lack of posts to the blog as I really do try to post everyday .. work was crazy so I'm hoping with my boss away things will go back to a normal level. 

Anyway enough chatter I had this set already out on my desk from the last post so thought I would make a quick and easy card using a different colour palette.  Come see what I made:

I used muted colours for this one and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink.  The colours were Baja Breeze and Sahara Sand with Not Quite Navy for the sentiment.  The cardstock is the sadly retired Confetti Cream I just love the flecks in the card.

Comfort Cafe is just so lush!

 

As I already had the majority of this stuff out on my desk after yesterdays card I decided to make a slightly more feminine version of the card using the same papers, layout and cardstock and ink but using one of the beautiful floral papers from the Comfort Cafe pack I love love love these papers.  

Sorry for the short posts lately but like I've said work has been busy and by the time I get in the only thing I want to do is go and curl up in bed and sleep it doesn't help that it is so dark and cold by the time I leave.  

Quick and simple masculine card

I wanted a quick and simple male card for somebody close to me to let them know I was thinking of them.  I used my favourite ever papers the Comfort Cafe papers are just gorgeous I love the colours and the fact that they have papers both for male and female cards.   I used the woodgrain embossing folder on some early espresso cardstock two of the papers from the series, a wooden button with some twine, sentiment from curly cute and midnight muse ink and cardstock.   This was such a quick and easy card to make and looks really nice in real life was very pleased with how this turned out.

 

Final Christmas card for a while

A different take on the card from yesterday.  Again using midnight muse this is such a fantastic colour I love it so much.  Festival of prints paper, ornament stamp, favourite christmas sentiment, swiss dots embossing folder, splash of glimmer mist and voila another Christmas card to add to the pile - at this rate I won't be shamed into running out of time and sending a shop bought card this year :)!

Less is more challenge - Pink

Hmmmmmm PINK .. that is the challenge over at Less is More this week - I have to say Pink really isn't a colour of choice and one that I hardly ever use so this was a challenge to say the least.  However I had to make a birthday card for a teenager who loves butterflies so come see what I made:

 

This is my absolute favourite butterfly set - it is called Beautiful Butterflies and is by Papertrey Ink it has a selection of really wonderful sentiments in a beautiful font and some of the most gorgeous butterflies I love the fact that they are all silhouette and come in different sizes and shapes.   I used 3 pinks from Stampin Up - Primrose Petals, Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose - I added a little bit of bling I mean what girl doesn't love bling.  The cardstock is a new cardstock that I am trying for my bases and I have to say I love it.  It is a great weight and is the new Naturals White from Stampin Up I highly recommend it.   

Here is a close up of the butterflies:

 

Quick and Easy Christmas Cards

I'm trying to make quick and easy Christmas cards at the moment as time is short in the crafty room.  I love this card and really enjoyed making it.  I used the festival of prints designer series paper again I think you all know how much I love this versatile packet of papers used the new apothecary accents dies and cut it in half to add some interest, my favourite Christmas sentiment, midnight muse cardstock run through an embossing folder which gives fantastic detail and the little ornament stamp that gets missed from the new seasonal catalogue which a touch of dazzling details on the baubles.

Christmas has well and truly arrived on the blog

I did a class for simple, quick and easy Christmas cards recently and these are the cards the ladies made.  We used Midnight muse (love it), cherry cobbler and gumball green.   The paper is from the very versatile and such great value for money Festival of Prints from the seasonal catalogue.  We used one of the embossing folders that looks like delicate snowflakes so pretty and mixed and matched corresponding colours.

 

I love how these cards came together so quickly sorry its a short post from me today as work is exceptionally busy and I need to find at least another 8 hours in the day to do everything I want to do!!