A duo of free stamp sets to create a duo birthday card

Am I cheating? I've combined two of the free stamp sets on my card today. You can of course use the punched flowers without the Polka Dot Punches stamps or add your own embellishments in place of them if you decide to go just for the Congrats set.

I started with a Pretty in Pink card blank and added Rose Red and Sweet Always Designer Series Papers. 

Whisper White narrow grosgrain ribbon covers the join of the papers. I stamped the Congratulations sentiment using Pumpkin Pie ink on Whisper White card. The "little bit older" sentiment was stamped with Rose Red ink onto Whisper White card. (There are another 5 phrases that come with this Congrats set). A corner rounder punch was used on the ends of the sentiments that would remain visible. Using Old Olive ink on the same shade card I stamped and punched the 5 petal flower twice to create leaves. The flowers were created with Pumpkin Pie ink onto the same shade card and Rose Red ink onto the same shade card. The flower and leaf combos were secured onto the sentiments using Earth Elements brads. These tags were stuck to the card with dimensionals.

Keep stampin'

Sara xx

An Anniversary Card in a clean and simple design using gold embossing

Thanks very much for the get well wishes you've sent. I still felt awful this morning when I finally came around but I've picked up a bit through the afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to turn this cold around. 

Yesterday was craft tip day so that was straightforward enough, but to make today's blog easier I've gone back again to another card I made earlier. This is an anniversary card that has a very clean and simple design. I generally like the less is more approach for wedding and anniversary cards. I started with Very Vanilla as the base cardstock. Using Versamark ink I stamped just the cakes from the Together Forever stamp in the Fun and Fast Notes stamp set. I covered this with gold embossing powder and applied the heat tool. To make the gold background I swiped my Versamark pad along all four edges of a larger rectangle, covered again with gold embossing powder and heated. (The not so neat bit of the swiping is hidden behind the cakes and you just have the neat edges on display - perfect). The cakes were matted onto the gold and the whole layer was raised with dimensionals.

On the inside of the card I used the Congratulations and On another year of happy togetherness sentiments from the free Congrats Sale-a-bration stamp set. I've used this stamp set on the outside of a card before (the Congratulations on passing your driving test card here) but I think they're especially good for stamping the insides of your cards and I've also used them on Wedding and New Baby cards.

Congrats is a set of 7 stamps and you can get them for free just by spending £45 or more on products from the Stampin' Up! catalogue. If you'd like to place an order to get your free stamp set then just email me at sarastamper123@gmail.com letting me know what you want and I can arrange delivery direct to your home.

One way to use them is to just stamp the inside of your card with Congratulations and then one of the following:

• on getting a little bit older and better than ever!
  
• welcome to the wedded bliss club!
  
• on the birth of your new baby!
  
• you've outdone yourself again!
  
• let the relaxation begin! (happy retirement!)
  
• on another year of happy togetherness!
  

A really helpful set for just finishing your cards off.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Congratulations on passing your driving test - a card to celebrate

Whoa! What day is it? Where am I? This has been a really busy week. I'm so looking forward to the weekend when I may finally be able to draw breath. Monday evening my hubby and I went with my Mum and one of her friends to a fancy meal accompanied by wine tasting, organised by our theatre club. A marvellous evening even though we did end up taking pity on the taxi driver and walking the last 15 minutes home through the snow so he wouldn't get stuck! Tuesday night, after buying a new bookcase from Ikea and packaging up the Marker Club I deliveries (hope you liked them ladies), I worked on getting two cards completed - the one here and a birthday card that I'll show you tomorrow. Last night we went to see Cabaret at the Sheffield Lyceum, starring Wayne Sleep and Samantha Barks. It was an excellent production and very moving, I can definitely recommend it. Tonight I finally have a chance to catch up with my blog and touch base with a few friends. Tomorrow it's my mother-in-law's birthday so we'll be popping round with her card and presents. Oh and I also had to fit in the day job in between - still better to be busy than bored. Now, after all the gossipy stuff, I'll get to the bit you're really here for.

A friend of ours passed her driving test on Tuesday and so I made her a card to celebrate her success. It's a long time since I took my own driving test and I think it's got more difficult, so I'm really pleased for her. I used Ballet Blue cardstock as my base. Using Real Red cardstock, I cut out a letter L and mounted it on a Whisper White square. This looked a little too plain and so I used the corner rounder punch on all the corners and then added eyelets to the top two corners. I cut the learner plate in two just by cutting a freehand zig zag and then stuck it to the base card. I stamped Congratulations from the free Sale-A-Bration Congrats stamp set using Real Red on Whisper White card (it's not too late to get one of these sets - free with any £45 spend). Again I rounded the corners to mirror the learner plate.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sara xx