July Birthdays!

Birthday wishes this month to my nephew Mark, whose card is shown above. This is of course the Builder wheel, as showcased in the current Mini catalogue (p13). The candles are in So Saffron (subtles collection), the greeting in Real Red (brights collection), and the stars in Night of Navy (regals collection). I've simply used some Designer Series Paper from the Celebrations set (IB&C p89) as a background and then punched a couple of stars out to break up the blue. I like this wheel for male cards as it's still fun, without hopefully being too much - still hoping for the less is more approach!

:-)

In complete contrast is this card for my niece Ariana, Happy Birthday for today :-) As you can see, I'm still playing with my Big Shot Butterfly dies, and all 9 year old girls need sparkle in their life, so I've used Rhinestone gems for the bodies and then the number 9 as a curly antennae. Colours here are Pretty in Pink, Rose Red and Perfect Plum, all from the subtles collection. On the envelope I used a vellum large Butterfly and a smaller one on top, all secured by glue dots. The embossed patterns allows just enough room to spell her name on the right wing from my stash of peel offs. Just hoping that she's had a fabulous birthday. Keep on crafting Gen x

Twins 3rd Birthday!

Where have the last three years gone? The fabulous Francis twins were three and here are their cards this year!

As Louie is a star and Emily is a petal, that was their themes for this year!

Louie's card here in Bashful Blue and Pacific Point colours, and then Emily's in Pretty in Pink and Melon Mambo. The only current stamp set I have used is in Emily's and is the flower from the Simply Said set. The Fower is done on the marvellous Big Shot using the Daisies Flower Bigz Die (Mini cat p7)

Here is hopefully a slightly clearer image of the central detail of the cards! My Big Shot also saved the day with their presents as this year I decided to do glove puppets and was stumped when it came to making he eyes, so used the daisies die to cut perfect circles in felt in black and white, and so here are Emily's cat and Louie's dog for you to see how Die cutting is permeating all areas of my life - hee hee hee! Keep on crafting Gen x

21!

My gorgeous niece Aimee turned 21 last weekend and making her card was a wonderful excuse to use my Big Shot machine, and here have used the Emblosslit Dies Beautiful wings (Mini cat p9), in shades of pink and purple, because of the base card I had to hand. The simple design with the arrangement of the butterflies into the numbers and it was pretty much done (see detailed picture to see the embossing in better detail below).

Once more the greeting is from the Sincere Salutations set, oval punched on Whisper White card stock, and scalloped oval for the Perfect Plum card stock, with the fabulous 5/8" Organza Ribbon at the bottom.

For the envelope I have used Schoolbook Serif Numbers (IB&C p77), and then the candle from the Party this Way set (IB&C p31).

This was then continued through for the present wrapping, as I love to make things match up. I have saved the large butterflies from the embosslit and doubled up the wings, using rhinestone gems for the central body, and the scalloped circle for the present tag.

Summer celebrations!

Here's my first card with the gorgeous Baby Blossoms stamp set (Mini cat p16). I've used the Subtles collection of colours, the Rose Red 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon (Mini p17) secured with a rhinestone brad. I love the two step stamping, using the stamp-a-ma-jig to get perfect alignment and allow the colours to give the images the 3D depth. This is the first time I've really used Baja breeze ink on the central panel, and yet again I have managed to fall in love with yet another colour - so more playing in the pipeline - hee hee hee!

Whilst making the card above, using the Sincere Salutations (IB&C p72), for the central greeting and having a 70th card to do, I simply snuck in 70 Birthday wishes and changed the corner flowers for the smaller rose buds rather than the larger roses. As always, making a card for somebody else I became unsure that the design was the one, so made another, which as you can see if far more free flowing than the other design. I stuck with the same colour collection as it's sensational for summer, even if the weather isn't! The stamps here are from the Growing Green set (IB&C p56), with a flower cluster from the Cottage Garden set (IB&C p53), and my favorite swirl in the right hand corner from the Season of Joy Christmas stamp set (IB&C p22). I have also used Basic Pearls (IB&C p99) for the centres of the three largest flowers. Luckily for me they were both used for the seventieth celebrations :-)

Crafty Kids!

Huge thanks to Ruth, Sam, Matthew, Janet & Kris for staying indoors yesterday afternoon just when the sun had started to split the paving stones ;-)

We had lots of fun with the Make a Monster set (IB&C p36), here I've used three ways to colour the monsters.

The left hand monster is daubed and randomly circular printing in Old Olive ink on Whisper White card stock. The middle monster is simply coloured in on white card stock again, and the monster on the right is printed onto coloured card stock with the eyes whitened with a marker and the mouth coloured in on white card stock and stuck on. With the base card I used the colour spritzer tool (IB&C p103) and the night of navy stampin write marker to get the splatter pattern. We then used a Crimper (IB&C p107) to create some texture for the Old Olive card stock that the monsters were attached to. Here I've used the party arrow once more, so the monsters take it in turn to be party animals as it spins around :-)

So I thought it would be fun to mark the end of the half term hoilday with this Origami Book Mark. Here I begin to understand the lure of the owl punch (Mini p14), and although you can get sufficient pieces with two colours, I prefer to make three colour way ones. Here it is Pacific Point, Whisper White and Neutrals ivory. Once the owl is made you simple glue the top of the owl to the triangle of the book mark and this sits over the corner of the page you want to mark. The thing I love about this owl is the eyes can look down at the page you want to mark - then you always know where you are :-)

To finish the workshop and to document the half term holiday we also made this little Match Book mini album. I thought there might be photos of the holidays that the children would want to show friends at school.

So this is a simple Pacific Point folder, where the small flap holds the three Celebrations DSP (IB&C p89) pages for the photos, (see small photo below). I have used the second owl as an embellishment, with some stamped off owl printing on the right of a scrap of the DSP strip and then some of the Quick Accents Celebrations set (IB&C p92) for the Rick Rack Ribbon on the small flap at the bottom. For ease I have just used a large paperclip to secure the mini album to hold it all together. Think I might be making myself one of these. If all else fails I'll be using this one ;-) Keep on crafting Gen x

Birthdays and Birth Days and Celebrations!

A surprise 40th Birthday was the perfect excuse for using a Gate style card with simply some Celebrations Designer Series Paper (IB&C p89) on the two fronts, some Pacific Point card stock for the 4x4cm squares and then my favorite Party this Way stamp set (IB&C p31) for the Real Red balloon and spinning party arrow. Trying to get into the habit of making two cards at a time with the idea of selling the second one, or having it to hand in case of need ;-) I hope David enjoyed his party as much as we enjoyed attending it ;-)

And from 40 years to celebration to the first celebration of life . . . .A warm Welcome to the World for the Gorgeous Gwion, second son for Owain and Rhi and little brother to Tudur. I am yet to meet this gorgeous bundle, but sent along this card to let them know I was thinking of them. As you have probably gathered, I love natural colours and recycled things and much of this card illustrates that. I have coloured the teddy bear using an Aqua Painter and Soft Suede ink.

As always I have to print a little sentiment on the envelope and here I have printed the sentiment that is inside the card. All the confetti stamps (IB&C p60) are getting serious use at the moment, but these heart ones are very versatile. I'm enjoying them so much it made a good starting point for me with this Anniversary card. I used the confetti stamp down the left hand side of the card, here in Riding Hood Red and then for the top hearts, hand cut slightly smaller than the base punched card stock. The sentiment stamps I have used here are retired, but would look good with the Heard from the Heart set (IB&C p74).

With my next card I've used the confetti flower stamp on the envelope of the card once more, always good to give the postie something to look at ;-) Here I've used the Beautiful Just Believe set (IB&C p57), with watercolour paper (IB&C p87) and simply colouring in the stamp with Stampin Write markers then spritzing the stamp with water to create this watercolour effect for the print. I then used textured card stock for the Old Olive background tearing both in an arc shape around the print. The finishing touch here was addition of Basic Pearls for the flower centres and then a line for the base of the print. I think they go quite well with the colour of the watercolour paper :-)

A note of thanks!

Using the swap from convention as inspiration I recently made a stash of cards for some friends with remnant card and left over DSP for a 9 1/2cm square note card. I had some retired coloured card stock and used Pacific Point ink for the So Many Thanks stamp (IB&C p112). While I was stamping I did make a set of five with the top colour scheme which of course is my favorite Old Olive card stock and then the gorgeous Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper (IB&C p89), so I now actually have some cards in stock - what an amazing concept!

Continuing with the thank you card theme, I had managed to resist the temptation of the owl punch (Mini p14) frenzy, but using a forthcoming kids craft session as an excuse I succumbed! The stamps that I have used here are all promotional free ones apart from the confetti leaf stamp (IB&C p60), printed with Old Olive ink. The branch for the owl is made using The Big Shot Sizzlit Die Little leaves (Mini p8) and Old Olive card stock and the owl is printed in Soft Seude ink.

More posts to come with the owl punch . . . soon!