The Other Side Of Me

I so enjoyed myself making this yesterday, I just had to show you: I am so in love with this Spice Cake dsp from Stampin Up! I just want to do it justice.  I can remember our American sisters making cards with it last autumn and being blown away by it, so as soon as it appeared in the Spring Mini here in the UK I couldn't wait to order it. I saw this fabulous card made by Julie Marshall here and fell in love with it.  So here's my version.  I love the way these colours go so well together.  I've used a Pool Party base, then Soft Suede, then white, with the sentiment stamped at the bottom, also in Soft Suede  I've had my first ever go at paper piercing all around the edge, but it doesn't show up very well in the picture.  I really enjoyed doing it though.  There are a few techniques like this that I've never tried (like the rock-n-roll technique) that I must have a go at soon. No sooner is the Spring Mini catalogue out of the door when t...

A friend of mine has asked for a card for her mum, so this is what I made: I have CASEd it from Marisa's card here,  (I checked and it deffo says you can case her stuff!)  I am going through a phase of loving this whole thing of a sentiment with a lot of white space, but on a scalloped shape, so there may be more of these to come.  It's really made me realise I don't have many exciting sentiment stamps.  I'll have to rectify that, won't I? (*Giggles*!) I've used a different embossing folder for my background.  All the pink cardstock is Pretty In Pink.  The flower is punched out with my posy punch.  I stamped the posy punch flower onto white card, cut the centre flower out and propped it up in the centre of my pink flower to add a bit of depth.  I added pink ribbon instead of yellow, largely because the bow was already tied for me! (You don't buy a dog and bark yourself, do you?)  I kept looking at it and wondering where I'd...

Did I tell you I got a few new things to play with?  I was in Hobbycraft last week and just happened upon this new cupcake stamp and die set by Sizzix and couldn't resist it.  I have had a ball playing with it.  I'm not saying this card is any great shakes really, but I had a lot of fun with it.  I've had the Stampin Up! pennant punch for a few weeks and have finally got to use it on a card.  I absolutely love bunting but I've never had so much fun making them as I have with this.  I used the big punch to cut the scalloped pennants, then the small one to do the white triangles.  I've used my individual letter stamps from Woodware to say 'P.A.R.T.Y.' The papers are called Tea House from Dovecraft.  I've had them for ages.  I cut the heart using my Nellie Snellen heart die.  And yes, sooner or later I'll be using the cupcake die to make clouds, you can be sure of that!  I googled 'Cupcakes' on Splitcoast and found a card made by Ka...

Hello fellow stampers, I hope you're all well.  I'd like to say a special hello to my new followers.  Thankyou for joining me on my journey of discovery.  I've only been making cards for a couple of years, so lots of things are still very new to me, so you'll have to bear with me if you think I'm teaching granny to suck eggs! Don't you find some cards are very quick to make, and some can take all day?  I've been working on one of the 'all-day' ones.  In fact it took two days, as half way through I gave up and went to bed! Anyway, here's the end result: It was well worth the effort in the end!  I have been looking around for a bird cage die for ages.  This one is by Tim Holtz.  I dithered because it's quite big, but it was lovely to use.  I've cut watercolour paper as it's quite thick, nearly as good as chipboard.  At first I left it in it's natural state, but it was too pale, so I've coloured it with Early Espresso marker...

Don't you love it when you give your title a post and realise that a whole year has gone by since you last wrote that?  I can't believe how much my style has changed too, since I last made a birthday card for my dear friend Priscilla. I am the proud owner of the Stampin Up! dsp called Spice Cake.  It is the most gorgeous stuff (somehow I knew it would be!) Here's what I've made: The cardstock and ink is Soft Suede but the centre oval is Very Vanilla.  When I was playing I tried this first on white and can hardly believe what a huge difference it makes just changing from white to Very Vanilla.  But you want to know what makes this card different, right?  Check this out: Yes!  What a cool idea!  So easy to make, too.  You can follow a fantastic tutorial by Dawn Griffith here.   I expect my dimensions are slightly different to hers as I wanted it to fit into a C6 envelope.  Here is a shot of the inside: Are you anything like me...

As promised, here is the birthday card I've sent to my aunt.  This was one of the last cards I made at craft class before we moved. Sorry to say the photograph doesn't do enough justice to the image, which is beautifully shiny, without being too much.  The stencil is Sweet Poppy by The Craft Station Ltd.  I am pleased with it because we used Dreamweaver paste.  The last time I used it, well over a year ago, I was absolutely hopeless with it and made a real mess.  I do think there is a skill in spreading the paste on properly.  We took the stencil off and added Glamour Dust, one of my favourite things (considering I don't really do glitter).  The lattice down the left hand side was cut with a die which I think is from We R Memory Keepers (hoping Jo will correct me if I'm wrong!) and is very delicate.  I actually used spray adhesive to mount it.  The St Luke's Charity Card Challenge wants to see cards with bling, so I'm happily enterin...

Hello fellow stamping obsessives!  How can I put this?  Oh yes, "I've got a neighbourhood wheel, and I'm not afraid to use it!"  I'd better explain, hadn't I?  I don't know if you remember, but a short while ago I put a call out to see if anyone knew where I could get a stamp of an interesting looking house.  To my delight, the lovely Vicky Hayes contacted me and said she had the retired SU! Neighbourhood Wheel if I wanted it.  I was so excited as this was in the first catalogue I ever saw, and I dithered and it retired, lost for ever. But now, thanks to Vicky, I am the proud owner of this wheel.  Thanks so much, Vicky. I've been playing with it, and I've got to confess, I've very carefully taken it off the wheel, so that I could make this: It's to send to my aunt to let her know our new address.  I'm so fascinated by this wheel, I could have just run it along and left it, as it's so sweet.  But I stamped the middle houses aga...

Today is my beautiful eldest grandson's birthday.  For some reason I thought I'd already put his card on here, but I think I've been so busy reading your blogs this week, I've forgotten to write my own!  Anyway, this is what I made for my special little man: Christian is obsesssed with football, so I knew I had to put something football related on his card.  I love the LOTV image of the bear in the changing room, with a shirt hanging up above him, but it says 7 and Christian is 8 so I opted for this digital image from Teddy Bo instead.  I must say, I am finding these images so useful for male cards, I've made quite a few now. I decided to keep it simple and knew I had to put Teddy Bo in a red shirt as Christian is an avid supporter of Man Utd (we all are as hubby is from Manchester) but also Doncaster Rovers, due to his dad.  Both teams have a red shirt, so that was fine.  I stamped the '8 today' in individual letter stamps using my SAMJ to place them c...

Hello there!  I hope you've managed to have a peaceful and relaxing Easter weekend, with family and friends.  We've been busy getting the house in shape, seeing to the horses and shopping, but I've finally managed to take a couple of pics of my new craftroom, so here we are: To anyone else, this would be a dining room, but in our case I'm afraid eating plays second fiddle to crafting! (You've got to get your priorities right, haven't you?!) It's quite an experience having a whole room to use.  You'll probably remember my desk from a previous post.  The printer is plugged in next to it, and to the left of that are my clear boxes full of embellishments.  Here's my old desk: I've put my little texture boutique on here and the front of those stacking baskets is full of all my embossing folders.  Much better than rummaging through a drawer every time I need one. I'd like to show you the cupboard in the window, which is holding all my papers...

For some reason, I'm making cards in the wrong order at the moment.  The card I'm going to show you isn't due until the end of the month, but I haven't made the cards I need for the 12th and 13th yet.  But you know what it's like -  if inspiration strikes for a particular card, you've got to go with it, haven't you?  And so I've made a card for my sister three weeks early!  It all started while I was packing to move and saw last week's ColourQ challenge, which used these colours: They just seemed perfect for my sister's card, which I wanted to be really bright: This is where Margaret comes in.  I won the stamp that says 'Sister' in her blog candy giveaway a few weeks ago and have been dying to use it.  Of course, this is the perfect opportunity, isn't it?  The stamp is from Papermania.  I stamped it onto the card in Tempting Turquoise, then embossed a line above and below it.  I stamped the flowers from the Posy Punch...

Hello folks!  We have finally moved in and I am able to start blogging again.  I am thrilled to say I have a craft room, and will show you some photos as soon as it's a little more organised.  I've been playing creating in there this afternoon, and it's been fabulous. But that isn't why I've titled this post 'Blissful'.  It's because that's the title of the stamp I've used on this card: This was given to me by my dear friend Margaret , and it's such a sweet image (from Little Claire Designs).  I've coloured her in So Saffron to match the cardstock, but the dsp is Holly Berry Bouquet by Stampin Up!  It's part of the Christmas papers, but not all of them are very Christmassy, and this one is very versatile, with little bits of Real Red and Wild Wasabi thrown in.  It's so lovely to be able to craft again.  I didn't realise how much it had become an essential part of my life now. I've recently decided to start another bl...