Guest Designer for LIM!

I was really flattered when Chrissie, from Less is More, invited me to be a Guest Designer for this week's challenge, which is to create a card Using More than One Stamp Set. I have been entering cards for the challenges right from the start and have only missed a few weeks since Chrissie & Mandi started the challenge blog in February 2011. I have to say it has become a bit of an obsession with me at 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning, when I can often be found making cards when I really should be doing something else :0)
Anyway here are the three cards I have made - Using More than One Stamp Set

My first card uses the Field Flowers stamp set for the stems and the sentiment and the flowers are from Petite Petals, punched with the co-ordinating punch. I used Old Olive for the stems and Melon Mambo for the sentiment and flowers.
To add a bit of interest I added some paper piercing using a template from the Festive Paper Piercing Pack.

My second card uses the Gorgeous Grunge set and the cute little lion and sentiment from Zoo Babies.
The Gorgeous Grunge 'splatter' was stamped in Pumpkin Pie and Crumb Cake and the lion was inked using markers in the same colours. This was punched with a Circle Punch and matted onto a Scallop Circle then fixed to the card with dimensionals. The panel was matted onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then onto a plain white card blank.

My final card uses Gorgeous Grunge (again!) and the image and sentiment from the Hostess set, Simply Sketched. I started by stamping the Gorgeous Grunge 'splat' in Old Olive on a piece of Whisper White cardstock then the bird stamp was coloured using Old Olive and Chocolate Chip markers and stamped on top of the 'splat' before colouring the bird using a Blender Pen. This was matted onto a piece of Old Olive cardstock which had been stamped with Gorgeous Grunge and the sentiment, punched with the Oval Punch, was matted onto a Modern Label.

Thanks once again to Chrissie for the invite and I'll be back soon

Margaret x

A Retirement Card, the Retiring List and a special offer!

Last week a good friend at work retired and I was asked (as usual!) to make a leaving card for everyone to sign. It was another large card - A4 - which I always find quite difficult but everyone loved it so that was ok. For the sentiment I used a couple of retired stamps and the name was cut with (the also retired) Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies. All this was on a Whisper White Oval cut from the Ovals Framelits and matted onto a Summer Starfruit Scallop Oval, from the same set. The larger flowers were made with the Flower Shop and Petite Petals stamp sets and co-ordinating punches and the tiny flowers are from one of this year's SAB sets punched with an Itty Bitty Punch, with leaves from the Bird Builder Punch. The card was finished off with a bit of paper piercing, some scoring, a knot of Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon and a couple of Papillon Potpourri butterflies - oh and of course some pearls!!



The brand new catalogue will be here soon but, in the meantime, the Retiring List is now available. There are lots of stamp sets and accessories, some at reduced prices. Click here to see them. These products are only available while stocks last so get them while you can! I am offering free postage & packing on all orders over £35 until the end of June so, if you would like to take advantage of this, please contact me at margaretk21@hotmail.co.uk or telephone 01933 663477 leave a message and I'll be very happy to help (Only applies to orders placed through me, not any online orders)

Margaret x

This is one of the projects we made at last week's class - a card and matching money/gift card holder. It uses Summer Starfruit cardstock and ribbon and some of this year's SAB designer paper.
The flowers were stamped with an image from Flower Shop and one from Petite Petals and punched with the co-ordinating punches. The sentiment on the card is from Field Flowers and was punched out with the Small Oval Punch and matted on a Modern Label. The closure for the money holder was diecut using one of the Labels Collection Framelits (sentiment and punch on holder are now retired).

The weather here has been atrocious today, it hasn't stopped raining so I have been busy making a commissioned engagement card and 'practicing' projects for my next class. Maybe it will be dry tomorrow :0)

Margaret x

Little gifts!

A very quick post from me to show you some little gifts I made for my class ladies last week. A few weeks ago I came across these little bath confetti pods (above right) and, as they were in SU colours, I couldn't resist them!
The little boxes were made with the Envelope Punch Board and each one held two of the confetti pods. They were decorated with matching DSP, a Bitty Butterfly, a little bit of Petite Petals stamping, a sentiment from Chalk Talk, an Itty Bitty flower and finished with co-ordinating ribbon.

I am on half-term this week and yesterday I came down with a cold - why does it always happen when I'm on holiday??

Bye for now

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

Once again this week I have used the LIM challenge, a card using Diecuts, for my Simples Sunday post and this is a really simple one.
I started by paper piercing two hearts, using the Occasions Paper Piercing Pack, on a panel of white cardstock. I then added three Rich Razzleberry flowers cut with the Floral Fusions Sizzlits Die and a Basic Pearl added to the centres. A few Pistachio Pudding leaves, cut with the Little Leaves Sizzlits Die, were placed around the flowers and all that was left to do was add the sentiment from Field Flowers. Simples!!

I sincerely apologise for my distinct lack of comments on last week's entries for the LIM challenge - the week ran away with me again. I am on half term this week so (fingers crossed) I will find some time to look round all the lovely entries.

Have a good day

Margaret x

LIM - Diecuts

The ladies at LIM are asking for 'Diecuts' this week and this is my entry. A simple card (put together quite quickly!) using the Circles Collection Framelits and the Beautiful Wings Bigz die. I chose Pistachio Pudding, Pink Pirouette and Whisper White for the colour scheme, one of the butterflies cut from Vellum cardstock, the ribbon is the Stretch Ruffle Trim and the sentiment is from Bring on the Cake.

Have a great weekend and try to stay dry!!

Margaret x

May the Force Be With You!

I'm back after a few days AWOL with a punch art card made for my Grandson. Firstly I have to say I am complete awe of the very talented crafters who come up with fantastic punch art characters and the one I have CASE'd today is no exception! It is my Grandson's birthday on Sunday and, at the moment, he is mad on Star Wars so I did a quick Google search and found this Yoda character made by Sarah-Jane Rae. She has shown a step by step tutorial on her blog which can be found here.
He is made with various punches and framelits and although he is quite ugly I think the finished result is really quite cute (in a funny sort of way!).
The Silver Glimmer Paper lettering does make sense if you understand it - along the lines of  r2d2, the r stands for Roman, the 6 is how old he is and the 2 day is 'today' - I feel sure I am going to have to explain that one though :0)

Back soon

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

 

My Simples Sunday card this week again fits the LIM challenge which is 'Flowers'. I used Naturals White cardstock and stamped a small piece with the tiny flower image from Summer Silhouettes, using Crisp Cantaloupe and Elegant Eggplant. I then punched out 5 scallop circles using the smallest SU punch and matted this onto a Naturals White Scallop Circle punched with the next size punch. I matted another piece of the card onto Elegant Eggplant and positioned this across the card blank before stamping the sentiment from Sassy Salutations in Elegant Eggplant. To finish the card it was simply a case of positioning the scallop circles using dimensionals and adding a few Basic Rhinestones.

I also made a little matching 'Bag in a Box' using the Envelope Punch Board which are also really simple (providing you have an EPB that is!). If you would like to see a video tutorial for this you can see one which was done by Sam Donald here.

 Enjoy your Sunday

Margaret x

Pleasant Poppies

The LIM challenge today is a card with flowers and I have two cards to show you, made from one background stamp, Pleasant Poppies.
I started by inking the large background stamp with Real Red and Pear Pizzazz markers, stamped onto white cardstock, then coloured the image in using a blender pen. (The whole stamped image is shown top right). I then cut of the panel of three poppies on the right of the image to make my second cut. For the card above I used the Circle Framelits to cut out the image and this was matted onto a larger circle of white cardstock. After fixing to the card blank I did a spot of paper piercing just on the left side of the circles. A sentiment from Simply Sketched and a butterfly from Papillon Potpourri were added.

For the second card I took the panel which had been cut from the large stamped image, matted it onto Real Red and added a sentiment from Four You. Two Basic Rhinestones were added to the banner and job done!!


Have a great weekend, enjoy the sunshine and I'll be back soon

Margaret x

May Card Swap

I can show you the card I made for this month's Card Swap Group as I know Alison has received it now.
Alison's favourite colour is purple so I used Elegant Eggplant along with the SAB set, Banner Blast, and Gorgeous Grunge. A small piece of Bakers Twine and a few Basic Rhinestones were all that was needed to finish the card.

Margaret x

A 'Grungey, Six-Sided' Thank You

Well what's that title about? It's all about the stamps I have used for this card - Gorgeous Grunge, Six-Sided Sampler and a Thank You (from Sassy Salutations).
Made using Midnight Muse and Smoky Slate - and that's all there is to say really :0)

Have a good day, back soon

Margaret x

Card Swap Group

This is the fabulous card I received from Aileen for this month's card swap. Aileen makes lovely cards so do pop over to her blog here and take a look.
The challenge Jane set us this month was to make a card using pennants or banners in some form or another. Aileen has used the Banner Blast SAB set for this card, the same set that I've used for my swap but I can't show you that just yet as it is winging it's way to Alison as we speak!
This is very definitely my style of card - neutral colours, so clean and simple and just so elegant.

Thank you Aileen, I love it

Margaret x