In Love With Stamping forum Mini Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my little section of the ILWS Mini Blog Hop!

There are more than 50 demos taking part, so loads of yummy projects for you to admire!

You may have come to me from the lovely Alison. If so, I hope you enjoyed her work and are ready for more! If not, be sure to use the links at the bottom to complete all the rounds!

I am sharing a really sweet card I made for my friend Hayley's sister's wedding.

She asked for a navy colour scheme, so I teamed Night of Navy with Rose Red and Crumb Cake. I think this is a really lovely combo.



I have used a few new Stampin' Up! products here. The main stamp sets are Clearly For You (the birds) and Baby Blossoms (the frame and roses).

There are actually three birds on the stamp, but I just coloured the two in with my markers. I threaded some Linen Thread over the top for their wire and hooked on to that a little tag from the Tiny Tags stamp set, made with the Jewellery Tag Punch.

The little roses are so sweet and not as fiddly as they look! The set is one of the Two-Step Stampin' range, which is so clever and great for adding depth. You just stamp the background in a lighter colour and the detail in a darker one over the top, using the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for placement.

The background image is the beautiful (and big) Bella Toile, inked with Versamark for a watermarked effect on the cardstock.

And at the top, the gorgeous new Seam Binding in Crumb Cake, ruffled up by gently pulling out one of the strands from the middle.



Phew! I hope you got all that!

The next stop on the ILWS Mini Blog Hop is Emma so get over there and see what she has come up with!

There are four rounds to the hop so it is a bit easier to get round them all in batches!

Here are the starting points of each:

Round 1 Erika
Round 2 Angela
Round 3 Rita
Round 4 Karen

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Songbird

Anyone who knows me at all will know that I am a massive fan of Fleetwood Mac. If you don't know that you've obviously never spoken to me for more than a minute.

So last night I made two projects using Songbird as my inspiration. It's one of my favourite songs by them and should a miracle happen and I get married it will be my first dance.

I have used the Notably Ornate stamp set, which has a beautiful bird and an amazing vintage frame (as well as two others!).



Project one is a pendant. I stamped the image on to Very Vanilla card and stuck it to the clear charm with Crystal Effects. The little round tag is a piece of the Newsprint DSP and I decorated the chain with some buttons and my favourite ribbon.



And here's project two - a card. I used Versamark to stamp the frame, which creates a tone-on-tone effect.



The bird was embossed on to Newsprint DSP and inked up with the brayer. I added some Grungeboard, also inked up. I'm not convinced the little frame works quite right - my handwriting could be better! I would really love a typewriter, that would be perfect for this type of thing. Would anyone like to buy me one?!

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More quick pics!

Here we go again, with three catch-up pics. These were from previous classes.



I love this bunting from the Party This Way set. I got these stamps FREE just for attending Convention. Two days of crafting fun with ace friends AND freebies. Heaven! The bunting was strung on to Linen Thread and secured with Brads. And check out all the balloons floating away!



Here's a card that is great for men. They can be so difficult even doing something nice for them is hard sometimes! I love the wheels and this one is right up my street! The DSP is Blueberry Crisp.



Finally, a gift tag in my favourite colour and a bit of glitter. Yum!

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A quick catch-up

Nearly time for bed, but I have realised I have LOADS of things to show that I must do before I can start sharing pics of projects made from the new mini catalogue when it comes out in April. And I have already done quite a few, so if I don't get blogging I will never be on top of things!

So here are two pics from Convention last November.



These are some of my swaps. With 100 card fronts to do I decided on four different designs. These are the flowery ones using the Two-Step Bird Punch and Cute By The Inch hostess set.



And I decorated these little bottles then filled them with bath salts. One was for my roomie Joy and the other for mummy Jules.

Two down ...

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The end?

The weekend is here again! Time really does fly at the moment.

So here's another scrapbook page. I now have quite a few done for my gorgeous Stampin' Up! scrapbooking album, and it looks amazing.

For this, I went black and white to complement the images. They were taken about 10 years ago while I was at uni in Cambridge. I did a photography module and was experimenting with processing the images in the dark room. I used to live next door to this graveyard during my first year, and would often walk through it for a bit of contemplation and me time.



The DSP is Love Letter, which features yummy black, white and red patterns in a lovely vintage style without being too OTT. I kept the whole thing quite simple with the aim of posing a question rather than making a statement.



For the title I used the chipboard letters from the On Board Alphabet Soup set. Instead of colouring them in or covering them, I simply distressed them a bit by daubing them with ink. I was very pleased with the result.

I really must start taking photographs again. My digital cameras were stolen when my house was broken into a couple of years ago, but luckily I still have my dad's old film camera (which these pics were taken with). That's much more fun anyway. If only I had my own dark room ...

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I'm an aunty again!

My big bro and his missus had their third child last Thursday - Tabitha Hannah. I've not met her yet but mum sent me a pic and she is adorable!

So here is the card I sent to say congratulations ...



I used the Baby Tees Wheel on Whisper White cardstock, then coloured the jumpsuits in using the Stampin' Write Markers.



I cut them out and hung them over a piece of Linen Thread, held in place with brads, using some Silver Elastic Cord. To make the clouds I just used the Sponge Daubers and Whisper White Craft ink.

Pretty straightforward really. I stuck the tees down with Dimensionals so they stand out.



And I added a bit of decoration to the inside.

Now I have to get started on a cross stitch samplerfor the new addition, just like the ones I made for Samuel and Ziva!

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A cheeky scrapbook page

I've been scrapping a few old photos recently, and although this one is a bit embarassing, and rude, I think it's awesome so I decided to share!

No idea what's going on here, but it obviously amused my parents!



Sweet ass! I went a bit 70s (even though I'm not that old!) with the funky patterned paper.



The chipboard letters are the very fun Stampin' Up! On Board Alphabet Soup, which I coloured using the Sponge Daubers with Chocolate Chip and More Mustard, and I remembered the Fleurettes - crochet flowers - that are perfect!



I've just got a Crop-A-Dile so I had to have some eyelets somewhere! And my fave embellishment - buttons with Linen Thread.

So yeah, that's my butt!

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ILWS Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my turn in the In Love With Stamping Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop!
There are four rounds altogether; I am part of number two so you may have arrived from the lovely Krafty Biker page. Links to the next blog in this loop and the start of each round are at the end of my post so do take time to look at the many wonderful creations using this year's Sale-A-Bration stamp sets from Stampin' Up!

Don't forget, these sets can only be earned until the end of February and then they are gone! You get them FREE by spending £45 or hosting a workshop with product sales of £300 or more. Just get in touch to place your order or arrange your home party.

I have two cards to share, both using the beautiful Bliss set in different ways.

On the first I have gone for the faux tile look, which I posted about a few days ago.



It is quite sraightforward but involves a bit of time and patience!



First, I created the whole tile image by stamping the beautiful motif in Crumb Cake and Basic Gray on to Very Vanilla cardstock. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line them up correctly.



Then I cut this up into squares, distressed the edges a bit with the Cutter Kit and covered each one with Crysal Effects. This dries to a clear laquer, making them look like ceramic tiles. I left them overnight to be absolutely sure I wouldn't smudge them!



Then I stuck on to Crumb Cake cardstock to act as the grout and finished off with some Twill Tape, stamped with the bird image from the set, and a Neutrals Button tied on with Linen Thread.



And now for the second card. This was inspired by my SU grandma Monica and I used my favourite colour - purple!



I adore this card so expect to see some variations in future!

I started by attaching a piece of Rich Razzleberry Striped Grosgrain Ribbon and a piece of the stunning Lap of Luxury DSP to the card blank.

Then I cut four squares of Crumb Cake cardstock and randomly stamped the motif in Crumb Cake and Basic Gray. The squares were then sanded at the edges, crumpled and inked up using the amazing Distressing Kit, which I am loving as vintage is soooo my thing at the moment! On one square I also stamped the Bliss and bird images in Rich Razzleberry.



The flowers and butterfly from the set were stamped in Rich Razzleberry on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut out, which was nowhere near as fiddly as it sounds! I stuck them on with Dimensionals for added effect.



As you can see I used lots of pearls all over as they are just soooooo pretty!



So there you go, two very different cards using the same FREE stamp set.

The next stop on round two of the blog hop is at Rachel's page, so go see what she has come up with!

And here are the starting points of each:
Round one: Sara
Round two: Theresa
Round three: Keren
Round four: Kirsteen

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Last Christmas cards

Well I have made my final Christmas cards of the year! These are two commissions I had from my friends.
Fay wanted something classy and elegant for her parents, so I used the lovely Contempo Christmas and added some glamour with the amazing Jewels and Pearls. The colour combo is Marina Mist and Crumb Cake, which is a bit of a different Christmas look - cool and snowy I think!
The tree card is for the niece of my friend Jo from WI. She wanted something very tactile, so I cut a felt tree and stuck on loads of bits! The star at the top is covered in glitter and the baubles are Designer Buttons and DSP stacks, punched out and given a coating of Crystal Effects. This gives a clear laquer tomake them shiny, just like baubles! And the trunk is a piece of card wrapped in Linen Thread and the tinsel is some random fluffy ribbon from my sewing stash.
Phew! I have just two presents to finish making and then I'm all done!

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More Christmas cards - it's coming fast!

Just over a month to go until Christmas! These two cards were ones we did at Chapel Pie WI a couple of weeks ago. Dasher is my fave Christmas stamp, but I love the Contempo Christmas with the tree as well. The Dasher card also uses the So Swirly Jumbo Wheel, which is incredibly versatile.
Don't forget that the Christmas bundles are still available to help you with your cards and wrapping. Details over there >>>
Hopefully I only have a few more Christmas cards to make. Then I have many presents to do ...

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Just Believe Convention card

This card I made at Convention. In our bags we got two free stamp sets - this one is Just Believe and the other one was Party This Way. What a fab present!
I had to tackle some new things doing this card. The image is stamped on to Watercolour Paper, which was then spritzed with a bit of water to make it bleed slightly so it looks like a painting. I also used the Spritzer tool to spray on some dots of ink and give a vintage look.
I love this design so much I did it with my class the other week. They loved it too!

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A new colour combo

I bought the yummy Woodland Walk DSP a while back but haven't done much with it, so decided to get stuck in. I used the colours in the sheet as the inspiration for the card and ink colours used, so we have Garden Green, Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip, which I think work wonderfully together. The stamp is one from the Cute By The Inch hostess set and I added some Linen Thread and Regals Buttons for extra interest.
It was a little bit fiddly to make, as I had to wrap the thread around the two separate pieces of DSP/card then stick it all down straight, but it was worth it.

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Convention gift swaps

Here are the items I made for a gift swap at Convention earlier this month.
I used some Twill Tape to make little brooches. I stamped the cotton tape with the So Swirly Jumbo Wheel and folded it over at the ends. I then added a folded piece of 3mm Taffeta Ribbon and fastened on a couple of Neutrals Buttons with Linen Thread.
The backing cards they were presented on used the beautiful Newsprint DSP and Broadsheet Alphabet.
I kept one for myself, which I wear all the time, and gave one to Shelli Gardner, the co-founder of Stampin' Up!
I love being able to use the SU products for things other than cards - it is all so versatile and you just need a bit of imagination!

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A quick modification

A final quickie post before I go to bed!
My lovely SU sister Jill got me this collapsible storage box from Ikea. It's an ideal size for swaps (yes, already thinking about next year's Convention!) but didn't have a carry handle. So I added them by stitching on some Striped Grosgrain Ribbon and decorating with some Neutrals Buttons attached with Linen Thread.
Bodd helped by sitting in the box while I stitched it, and we both got poked several times with the needle, but overall, it was a successful project!

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A baby card

Hot off the press, here is a card I have literally just finished! This afternoon I've been prepping for my class on Monday and my good friend Hayley came round to do some crafting too.
I made her this card for a friend of her husband who is due to give birth soon. I used the Baby Tees Jumbo Wheel on Whisper White, coloured them in with Blender Pens in Certainly Celery, Daffodil Delight and Bashful Blue, cut them out and hung them on to the Linen Thread with an old earring hook. The thread was secured at each end with a Brad and I stuck the tees down with a sticky foam pad. The bottom of the matting was shaped with the Scallop Trim Punch and I added a bow with Certainly Celery 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.
Phew! It was a really nice card to make as there are lots of different bits to it. And who doesn't love colouring in?!
Now I have all my stuff out I'm going to spend the rest of the evening crafting.

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Newsprint bookmarks

Now Convention is over I can show you some of the swaps and gifts I made for people. Well, I have actually posted a couple already without saying cos I loved them too much!
I made these bookmarks for an organised 3D swap, and also did one for mummy Julie, my roomie Joy and the lovely Vicky Hayes, whose blog never fails to inspire me. And I sent one to my mum as well!
They were really easy but fun to make as there are several elements but nothing too complicated. The base is a piece of textured River Rock card and Newsprint DSP on a mat of Basic Black Card. The bottom was shaped with the Eyelet Border Punch. At the top, I had wheeled the Music Notes on to a piece of Twill Tape and threaded it through a punched hole several times. Then, stamped the recipient's initial using Broadsheet Alphabet, cut out and layered on. I added a bit of 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon and a Neutrals Button with Linen Thread.
I kept one for myself so now I just have to find time to read!

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Tales of interest

I had some good crafty time yesterday and decided to make some little sample pages. I had started out with the intention of doing a bit of scrapbooking, but as I have no photos it was a bit tricky. So instead I am creating a notebook of ideas and samples and bits and bobs.
This is the first piece for it, using the beautiful Newsprint DSP and Broadsheet Alphabet. The butterfly is All A Flutter, which comes on its own so is great if you're just starting out. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

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