Hello Baby!

Inspired by a card that I made at one of the Stamp-a-stack sessions (which can be found on an earlier post here), I recently needed to make a lot of baby cards in bulk.  There are babies appearing everywhere at the moment, and I can barely keep up with the rate that I need to make and send cards! So I decided I needed a design that I could make quickly, and I thought of the bunting card.  I made 6 cards of each colour, so I'm fully prepared for any more babies that are on their way!

I used Crumb Cake cardstock, with Very Vanilla and Baja Breeze / Pretty in Pink ink and papers from the Subtles Paper Stack.  The 3/4" punch fits nicely around the Just Perfect Alphabet stamps.  The "baby" sentiment is from the Pennant Parade stamp set.  Inside, I stamped the words "One little baby...many happy hearts!" from the Curvy Verses set, which was one of the first Stampin' Up! sets I purchased.  The Square Lattice embossing folder was used with the Big Shot to emboss a section of the card, it just adds an extra bit of detail that makes it look that bit more special.

 

The sentiment on the inside of the card - from Curvy Verses.

Half of the cards lined up, ready to be added to my box of cards.

 

I hope that everyone that received one of these cards recently liked them.

Gerberras

These are more flowers that were made for Light Night, this time they are Gerberras. Melon Mambo card stock was cut with the Flowers, Daisies #2 die in the Big Shot. The old buttons were removed, and I added a smaller flower to the middle, some in Melon Mambo, and two others with Pink Pirouette. Cherry Cobbler was used to ink the edges of the petals with the sponge daubers. For the centres of the flowers, the Boho Blossoms punch was used to cut multiple flowers from Early Espresso card stock.

I really like how these Gerberras have evolved, from looking like in the picture below.

In the bottom of the pot, I scattered some leaves that were also made for Light Night. These were made with Old Olive cardstock using the Paper Cutter/Scorer, the Large Oval Punch and the Crimper. A really effective way of making leaves, and very simple too.

Paper / Cardstock - Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Old Olive

Stamp Set - N/A

Embellishments - N/A

Tools - Boho Blossoms punch, Sponge Daubers, Big Shot, Flowers Daisies die, Crimper, Large Oval Punch, Paper Trimmer / Scorer

Inks / Markers - Cherry Cobbler

Sunflower cards for Mother’s Day

Inspired by a card I found on Pinterest, I've made two cards using the Flowers, Daisies #2 die to make sunflowers. They use the colour combo of More Mustard, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake.

The first card has one large sunflower. The middle was cut with the 1-3/4" Circle Punch, and embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder. The Modern Label Punch and the Word Window punch were used for the Happy Mother's Day sentiment, from Teeny Tiny Wishes, and the Crop-a-dile was used to make the holes where the linen thread was placed though.

The second card has three of the medium sized flowers, and the centre was cut with the 3/4" Circle Punch. The Bird Punch was used to cut leaves from Certainly Celery card stock, and the Scallop Oval Punch and the Large Oval Punch were used to cut the Just For You sentiment, again from the Teeny Tiny wishes set.

I'll be making these again, perhaps next time I'll use a brighter yellow, So saffron or Daffodil Delight for a more summery feeling.

I'd better get up now, this is a scheduled post I wrote on Saturday, as I didn't want my Mum to see her card before she opened it! I'm at hers for the weekend, and we're off to see some lambs today at Wimpole Hall.  No doubt there will be photos, I'll have to think of a sheep related card I can make.

Paper / Cardstock - More Mustard, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery

Stamp Set - Teeny Tiny Wishes

Embellishments - Linen Thread

Tools - Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, Bird Punch, Flowers Daisies #2 die, Crop-a-dile

Inks / Markers - Soft Suede, Crumb Cake

Daisies

Morning!

Last weekend, myself and Kylie (my downline & crafty pal) had a bit of a craftathon marathon! She was preparing for her first workshop, and had lots of projects she wanted to have on display.  I made some bits and pieces for her, and took the opportunity to make some things I'd had ideas for.  It's given me plenty of things to share with you, I've just got to get the 17 blog posts that have been drafted written up and posted now.

Those of you who were involved in The Craft Garden at Leeds Town Hall for Night Light 2011 (see my previous blog post here) may recognise these flowers. I'd not done anything with them since they came home after the event, and thought it was about time they were renovated into a display project for my workshops and classes.

Kylie decorated a plain kraft flower pot with the Hostess Benefits Cheerful Treat DSP and I removed the old non Stampin' Up! Buttons from the flowers and replaced them with orange and yellow buttons from the Brights set. The daisies were made using the Big Shot and the Flowers, Daisies #2 die with Whisper White card stock. They were inked around the edges with Cherry Cobber ink with the Sponge Daubers.  The stalks are made from garden wire from my local garden centre. I've forgotten to take a picture of the back of the flowers, but the wire is attached by using the sticky strip and a flower punches with the 5 Petal Flower punch, in Old Olive.  I'll add the picture later.

 

I love seeing them being used again after Light Night, all the effort I put into making them was worthwhile.

Papers / Cardstock - Whisper White, Cheerful Treat DSP

Stamp Set - N/A

Embellishments - Brights buttons

Tools - Big Shot, Flowers Daisies #2 die, Sponge Daubers

Inks / Markers - Cherry Cobbler

Meet Larry & Gary

I'd like you to meet one of my first sewing creations - Larry the Lamb.  He's been part of the family for a few years now, although I think it did take me about a year to finish him! He's from the Tone Finnanger Tilda books range - Crafting Springtime Gifts.  I have all of her books, and I love sitting looking through them. I do have a bad habit of buying craft books, and doing just the reading, so I was pleased that I actually made something from this book.

Larry is made from a hand towel, a white one from John Lewis, he's a posh lamb!  The instructions were really easy to follow, and the sewing bits were too, although I preferred the machine stitching of the body to the slightly fiddly hand sewing to attach the feet to the legs, the hands to the arms, the arms to the body and the ears to the head.  I'd seen some slightly dodgy attempts on the Internet, and I wanted mine to turn out as cute as they were in the book. 

Larry was eyeless for many months, I never got round to finishing him off.  He's got eyes now, but they are just glass headed pins, so he's not a very child friendly toy. 

He's been on a few trips away with me, here he is coming on a car journey with me.

Larry ready in the back of the car to go on his holidays.

Larry sat on the wall over looking Scotland.

Larry looking sad out of the window when he was left in the hotel for the day.

Larry with his Christmas Santa hat on.

Larry having a sit in the rosemary bush outside.  Mmmmm lamb and rosemary mmmmm!

This is Larry putting on his jumper that Judith (my sister) made for him.

The ball of wool that Larry's jumper was made from was bigger than he was!

This is the beginnings of Gary.  This is the easy part of making the lambs, the pieces that are sewed on the machine. Gary was Judith's creation, I think she enjoyed the cutting and machine stitching but then gave up when it got to the fiddly bits of attaching the arms and legs, so I've just finished him off recently for her.

Here he is stuffed, but with no ears or arms attached yet. He's lovely and plump, it was very funny when Judith was trying to get his stuffing in the right places and then massaging him to get it all even.

Finally, here's a picture of the finished Gary. I hope he gets to go on as many outings as Larry has been on.

Everything Eleanor

This is another overdue post, I think that's me up to date with these now! Today I'm sharing another card and gift bag that we made at one of Julie Kettlewell's team training sessions.  We used the Everything Eleanor stamp set, which I really like.  I've seen it used in so many different ways, and each of the stamps can be used on their own, or together like in the cards below.  The colour combo for this card is Peach Parfait, one of the In Colours for 2010-2012, with Soft Suede and Saraha Sand. The Thank You sentiment is from Curly Cute, one of the sentiment sets I couldn't do without!

We made a second card, to demonstrate how easy it is to give the card a bit of extra something, by just adding a few Rhinestone Pearls and a bit of ribbon.

This is the little gift bag we made, using the Scallop Envelope die. It was really easy to make, and didn't take long.

Card / Paper - Peach Parfait, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Stamp Sets - Everything Eleanor, Curly Cute

Embellishments - Rhinestone Pearls, Crumb Cake 1cm Taffeta Ribbon, Very Vanilla 1cm Taffeta Ribbon (retired)

Tools - Big Shot, Scallop Envelope Die, Eyelet Border Punch

Inks / Markers - Peach Parfait, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand

Happy Birthday Owl

Here's a card I made a while ago at one of Julie Kettlewell's team training sessions.  It's a very quick an easy card, there's not much stamping to be done, and just assembling the owl takes a little time.  We cut out a Top Note die shape in Crumb Cake, then embossed it with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  The leaves are from the Little leaves die, and the owl was punched with the Owl Builder Punch.  The sentiment is from Curly Cute.

Card / Papers - Regal Rose, Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Springtime

                       Vintage DSP (retired)

Stamp Sets - Curly Cute

Embellishments - N/A

Tools - Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Top Note Die, Little Leaves die,

           Owl Builder Punch

Inks / Markers - Early Espresso 

At the training session, we also made this little gift bag, using the Scallop Envelope die. I love making things from items that are different to the obvious way to use them.  The papers are from the retired Springtime Vintage DSP.  The handle was created by punching out a shape with the Word Window Punch, clever eh!

Card / Papers - Regal Rose, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Springtime Vintage DSP (retired)

Stamp Sets - N/A

Embellishments - Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon

Tools - Big Shot, Owl Builder Punch, 1-3/8" (3.5cm) Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Scallop Envelope Die,  Word Window Punch

Inks / Markers - N/A