SWU colour challenge and my first sneak peek for you from the new catty

Hope you're having a restful Sunday. I'm a little late posting today because I've been working at the Barnsley Craft Fair today, sharing a stand with JJ. We've had a good day, chatted with some lovely crafters and even sold some items too, lol - bonus!

Anyway, on to today's challenge at Stamp With Us. This week's challenge is a colour one, based on this picture:

I decided to give my Soft Summer stamp set an airing before we lose the Mini Catalogue at the end of September. As well as taking the colours from the picture I also decided to follow the idea of "quilting".

Recipe

Stamp sets: Soft Summer, Best Yet

Cardstock: Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Green Galore, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White

Ink: Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Green Galore, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Versamark, Signo White Gel Pen

Other: White EP, Crafter's toolkit

I stamped elements from the set with colours on white card and Versamark on coloured card, which was then heat embossed with white powder. Faux stitching was added around each piece of quilt.

Recipe (inside)

Stamp sets: Soft Summer, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Pink Passion, Pixie Pink

The central image is stamped in Pink Passion, the others are in Pixie Pink which is then stamped off.

Please go take a look at the rest of the DT's bright and breezy creations. And a very Happy Birthday to Zoe, my team mate!

Now - on to my first sneak peek for you from the new catalogue. I'll repost with full recipes after the 1 October catalogue launch date but for now I can tell you that this is from the delicious Whimsical Wings set.

Thanks for stopping by. More sneak peeks to come ...

Sara xx

A soft summer birthday card for my Mum

As I promised yesterday, here's a break from Christmas. This is the card I made for my Mum's birthday last weekend. We had a lovely girlie day out in Lincoln on the Friday with our traditional picnic breakfast of Bucks Fizz and croissants on the train, a meander around the shops and then lunch at the Pie Shop in Lincoln (very tasty). Sunday, my brother, SIL and DH went round to Mum and Dad's and we enjoyed an al fresco buffet lunch out in the sun. So it was a long, leisurely family weekend together - lovely!

Now to the card - I always aim to make my close family cards that bit more special and often a little bit larger too. This design is a tri-shutter card taken from the Splitcoaststampers Try a New Technique Forum. It needs 12" long card so I broke into my stash of textured 12" x 12" cardstock - very luxurious.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Soft Summer, Fresh Cuts

Textured Cardstock: So Saffron, Barely Banana

Plain Cardstock: Apricot Appeal, Very Vanilla

DSP: Tea Party

Ink: Mellow Moss, SU Markers

Punch: Boho Blossoms

Other: Dazzling Diamonds

Non-SU: Nesties, Cuttlebug folder, Diamonte letters, computer printed verse

The vine was stamped direct to the card with Mellow Moss and the blossoms were punched, shaped and attached with glue dots. All other elements were matted and layered as you can see from the photos. The small space to the left of the letter U was used to write a personal message to Mum.

Have a great bank holiday weekend everyone ... mmm, more crafting time!

Sara xx

Thanks for your best wishes, things are getting back on track

Thanks so much to all for your best wishes for my Dad - they've worked. He came home from hospital yesterday evening and I've just been over to visit again. He's still in pain but he's looking a lot better and is definitely happier to be at home. 

I'm also happier and was able to make this card last night. I fell back to my old favourite colours, the Plums, teamed with Moss this time and I finally parted with some of my buttons (only bought them a couple of months ago, not bad for me).

Recipe

Stamp sets: Soft Summer, Oval All

Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Mellow Moss, Whisper White

Ink: Black Stazon, Perfect Plum

SU Markers: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Certainly Celery, Mellow Moss, So Saffron

Gingham Ribbon: Moss

Coloured Buttons: Soft Subtles

Punches: Large Oval, Scallop Oval

Other: Crafter's Toolkit

I stamped the blossoms onto Whisper White, coloured with Markers and cut it out. The Perfect Plum mat was paper pierced in both corners, leaving a blank area at the top for the button. Both buttons were threaded with a sliver of Perfect Plum card and stuck on with glue dots. Everything else is just matting and layering.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

A thank you card in a range of pinks

OK, the last thank you card of the bunch (for a little while at least). I'll move onto a few other occasions for my cards next (hmm, think Father's Day may have to be one of them, lol).

For now though here are the details for this one:

Recipe

Stamp Set: Soft Summer

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red

Ink: Black Stazon, Regal Rose, Stampin' Write Markers

Gingham Ribbon: Light Pink

Striped Grosgrain Ribbon: Pretty in Pink

Punches: Scallop Edge, Corner Rounder

Other: Crafter's Toolkit, Dazzling Diamonds

The image was stamped, watercoloured with markers, cut out and raised on dimensionals. The top two mats were paper pierced using the Crafter's Toolkit. Just one edge of the base card was corner rounded to echo the rounded sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara zz

Cards that I made for a timed SWU challenge

Happy holidays everyone. Hope you're enjoying the long bank holiday weekend as much as I am.

Many thanks for all your messages of congratulations on making the Stamp With Us Design Team. I now need to start making my samples ready for the challenges.

Been a busy weekend so far. Yesterday I spent the morning with my downline Jan at her first Open House. The ladies who came along (we didn't get any gents, still waiting for the first to turn up) made a couple of great make and take cards and we demonstrated a variety of techniques. It was lovely to hear how the catalogue items "came alive" for the ladies. There were quite a few eureka type moments along the lines of "oh so that's how you use that" and "ooh that looks so much nicer in real life". Great fun and perhaps time  arranged another one as my last one was back in December.

DH and I then went over to visit my Mum and Dad and then onto the piccies to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Got to admit that I was a bit disappointed. Not in Hugh Jackman, who looked very fit (in all ways), but it seemed more of a boy's flick than the others had been.

Anyway, back to the crafting. Friday night was launch night of the Stamp With Us on-line class and we had chat (fast and furious with about 40 people typing messages at once) and timed challenges. If you'd still like to join up then the only thing you'll have missed out on is the chat from Friday night, you'll still be able to access all the tutorials and the next chat session is scheduled for Tuesday. Details are on the Stamp With Us site.

These are the cards I made on the night (I've rephotographed them in daylight):

Recipe

Stamp Sets: Soft Summer, Oval All

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive

Ink: Markers, Versamark

Ribbon: Bashful Blue taffeta, Certainly Celery narrow grosgrain

Other: Dazzling Diamonds, White embossing powder

Punches: Large Oval, Scallop Oval, Scallop Edge

I paper pierced the Ruby Red mat and raised it on dimensionals. The centres of the flowers were sprinkled with dazzling diamonds into wet Tombow glue (doesn't show so well in the photos but looks good IRL). The two different ribbons were tied together and wrapped around). The sentiment was stamped once onto Old Olive and again onto Certainly Celery with Versamark. Then white embossing powder added to each and heated with the heat tool and finally punched and assembled.

Recipe

Stamp Sets: Bloomin' with Beauty, Seasonal Wishes, Yummy

Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Markers

Ribbon: Real Red narrow grosgrain

Other: Hodgepodge

The red ribbon was tied onto the hodgepodge and wrapped around the single piece of Basic Black card to divide the image and the sentiment. The dinky heart on the sentiment is from the Yummy set (a discontinued Sale-a-bration set).

Hope to get on with a scrapbooked page or two soon to show you the DSPs that are currently on offer, so I hope you'll stop back soon.

Sara xx