Abi's Birthday 2011

Sorry it's been such a long time since I've updated my blog, but life & Blogger have been getting in the way lately. Every time I've had five minutes to update, Blogger hasn't been letting me in.

I've got loads of projects to show you, so if Blogger lets me upload all my photos, you'll have loads to see during the next couple of weeks.

My first offering was made to celebrate my Stampin' Up! Mummy's birthday. Abi is (lots) younger than me but her downline like to call her Mum!!

We share a love of chocolate so I bought a cup of Galaxy chocolate that you just heat in the microwave, they are super yummy (I had to try one or two just to make sure) and added a couple of bars of Galaxy Bubbles, they too are delicious!! lol

I made a simple open top box to hold them, added a piece of floristry film, gathered the ends up and used some retired spotty ribbon to tie it up. The outside of the box was decorated with some Vintage Vogue flowers with pearl centres.

The matching card has a Top Note die cut panel and the greeting panel is the new Four Frames stamp punched out using the matching Decorative Label punch. The top of the card base was stamped using the Very Vintage roller, I didn't want a clean image so I rolled it back and forth a few times.

The colour combination was Soft Suede, Crumb Cake & Pretty in Pink. Hope you enjoyed it, and had a lovely day Abi.

Take Care,
Kathy.x

Lap of Luxury Workshop

These are the items made at last weeks workshop. I based the projects around the Lap of Luxury DSP and used accent stamps from Just Believe, Punch Bunch and Perfect Punches. The colour combination is Very Vanilla, Concord Crush, Pretty in Pink and Basic Grey.... very girly. I think these would make lovely Mothers Day gifts, which is coming up at the beginning of April.

I kept the projects very simple as I wanted to show off the gorgeous papers. A few punched elements and some ribbon finished them off nicely.

The card was made by embossing the acetate with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and using it as the card base, then attached a piece of DSP to the inside. I created a spine for the card with some Concord Crush CS, which I had punched using the Eyelet Border punch. This hides any adhesives used on the acetate. I used the Flower for You stamp and matching Fancy Flower punch for the focal point. The centres of the cards I used different stamps, one is from the Just Believe and the other from Punch Bunch SAB. I finished the card off with a ribbon bow (Pretty in pink Taffeta).

The notebook was covered in Concord Crush CS and a DSP panel added. This time I used the Scallop Circle punch for the base of the embellishment. One was stamped using a Perfect Punches stamp, the other left plain. The centres were the same as the card. They were finished off with some Concord Crush Stitched Poly Ribbon, which is lovely and soft not to mention a gorgous colour (I wonder why! lol).

I made a cute little post-it note keyring using a scrap of DSP, some Concord Crush CS and some punched sheets of pink Post-it notes. Top Tip - please only punch 4 or 5 sheets of post-its at a time or it will jam, and make sure you punch on the sticky end! My cropodile was strong enough to punch a hole through all the layers to fit on the keyring.

I bought the keyrings from The Range at £1.99 for 12, the notepads for £1 for 10 from Poundland and the pens were also from poundland. If any of you are thinking of doing some craft fayres, these would make lovely items to sell, especially if you put them in a pretty presentation box. 

Thanks for looking, and thanks to my ladies for another lovely evening,
Kathy. x

CARD & CAKE FOR CAROL

This card and gift have been made for one of my work colleagues, Carol. I adapted the tealight holder to have a secret compartment to hold some chocolate, although if you wanted to keep it calorie free you could add a pair of earrings etc. I enclosed the tealight and made a hole for the switch, to keep it all nice and neat.

For the card I got out my Nestabilities (Ovals & Scalloped Ovals) and one of my Cuttlebug embossing folders for the panel. I punched out the 5 Petal Flower 3 times and ran them through my paper crimper several times to distress them, then added a few leaves punched from the 2-Step Bird Punch.A birthday greeting and a little ribbon finishes it off.

I hope she likes it, have a lovely birthday (and few days off) Carol!

Take Care,
Kathy. x

Bliss Vase and Card

 I took inspiration from the Stampin' Up! catalogue for this set. For those of you who don't own a copy, you'll find loads of ideas for cards, gifts and home decor in it. It's well worth the money as it has far more project ideas than many magazines for the same price.

Anyway, I loved the vases covered with Elegant Soiree DSP, so decided make my own. Unfortunately I've not been able to find tubular vases (except really expensive ones), but saw some cheap glass tumblers from Asda (£3 for 6). As usual I had to make it difficult for myself as they are tapered, but I had a little think about it and came up with my own hand drawn template.

For those of you who would like to have a go I have finally got a template for the cover on my template page. Please let me know if you can't open it as I'm a total dunce when it comes to techno stuff.

I cut out a template and stamped it all over with the Bliss SAB flourish in Crumb Cake, sponge daubed the top and bottom edges and adhered it to the tumbler with sticky strip. I then stamped and cut out some flowers and the butterfly, added pearl details and stuck them to the tumbler.

The card was made after using the same stamp set and I used some Kraft Tafetta ribbon (sadly retired) for texture. I could have made my own Crumb Cake ribbon with ink, but I had a little left so used that.

I've made this set for my Mum, she had her knee replaced yesterday, and the hospital is a little funny about flowers so she'll have a nice bunch when she gets home next week. At least she won't have to worry about leaving the vase behind, and flowers usually last more than a week, so she can enjoy them for longer.

Take care everyone,
Kathy. x

SWEET SUMMER WORKSHOP

I said how much I'd enjoyed making the sweet summer squares card, and wanted to do a workshop with a version of it, so I did!

The first picture shows what we made, although we only got to make one of the tealight birthday cakes as we were running out of time.

The colour scheme was Baja Breeze, Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip, with a little Whisper White. Jayne said how these colours would make lovely baby cards and I have to agree. It's a good job I have plenty of those colours as I'm going to be an Aunty again in August and my Stampin' Up! mummy, Abi, is expecting too. I'm planning to do a baby brag book for my Sister-in-Law, but I'll be using yellow as the colour as it's neutral (she doesn't know if it's a boy or a girl) and it's her favourite colour. Not sure what I'll be making for Abi, but as she reads my blog I'm afraid I won't reveal it until after she gets it.

I was asked to show how to make the calorie-free cakes by one of my ladies who saw them on some of the blogs I have links to. Those talented ladies were shown how to make them at convention, but as I hadn't been able to go I had to work out how they were made from their pictures. I hope I got it right!

Anyway, we all had a great evening, although we missed you Heather! Hope you are feeling better now.

Take care,
Kathy.