Happy Holidays!

Having had a couple of weeks stay-cation over the summer, in Marvellous Mid Wales I have had a little time to play with another of my favorites - photos :-) This is a compilation photo I had done earlier, but decided to decorate the mount with some rub ons that I had purchased from SU earlier, and I think the swirly corners and family script just finish it off - what do you think? Those of you who are following my blog can leave me a message to let me know what you think ;-)

Here are a couple of close ups of the corners, as I love all things swirly :-)

For those keen observers that is me on the left sitting between my two brothers and above in the fetching bikini - hee hee hee!

Playing of course means that my Big Shot die cut machine is never really far away, and means that making a quick Thank You card is even quicker than usual, good job I kept all those scraps to now make endless embellishments and allow each project to spring to life.

Needless to say I caved in under the pressure of the August promotion and am looking forward to spending my day off tomorrow, playing with my free items - hee hee hee! Keep on crafting, Gen x

21 celebrations and Inspiration

Another coming of age celebration and continuing my love of numbers and using the candle from Party this way stamp set for the number one. Here I've used Bashful Blue, Pacific Point and Night of Navy to match in with some ribbon that I already have and is a favorite of mine for male cards. I then used some silver emboss for the circular birthday greeting from a retired set, hence the stars dotted over the card. Hopefully you can see a bit more of the detail here,

and I hope Calum had a wonderful Birthday.

I also wanted to just mention my most recent inspiration, and it of course comes from a stamping friend Steff whose artistic stamping continually makes me ooh and aah and wonder how I can recreate the images too. As always a picture speaks a thousand words, so here's a card she made. This mirrors my other present inspiration, the summer hedgerows. Here Steff has used Pocket Silhouettes (IB&C p45), stamp set and a current hostess set Silhouette Sentiments (IB&C p11) and the real genius here is that she has inked the flowers and not the stems and that makes them pop out of the foliage and just as you see them in life.

I also want to thank Steff as we had a wonderful evening of stamping to finalise her Ruby Anniversary invitation design, and they are so lovely that I thought I would show you them too.

Here she has used Real Red for the Flower Accent stamp (IB&C p112) and then metallic red and black for the Boho Blossom centres of the flowers secured with brads and then the corner stamp (from the Vintage Vogue stamp set IB&C p62) and sentiment in Early Espresso and just to highlight the flowers I have taken a closer shot to see the detail better. It is always great to get carried away in craft and even better to know that others do the same. Keep on crafting, Gen x