Simple and quick valentine gift - as easy as 3-2-1

If you're running a bit late for Valentine's day then this little project may be just what you need. Very quick, no stamping and just enough room for perhaps a single chocolate or a few chocolate hearts. And you only need a few supplies:

• 3 punches
• 2 colours of cardstock
• 1 ribbon

Recipe

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake

Punches: Petal Card, 1" Circle, Small Heart

3mm Taffeta Ribbon: Real Red

Punch two of the Petal Cards from Cherry Cobbler card (or Real Red). The Petal Card punch both punches the shape and scores the folds for you. On each four Petal Card shapes, fold in two of the petals next to each other, this will form your heart shape. Score and fold a piece of 6cm x 2cm matching colour card at 3cm and adhere to the outside of the folded petals. Punch/pierce a small hole in the centre of each end of the strip forming the "V" of the basket, thread with the Real Red ribbon and knot on the inside. That's your basket made.

Punch the small heart from a scrap of Crumb Cake card, centre this within the 1" Circle and punch again. Pop up the punched heart on the front of the basket using dimensionals cut in half. Done!

This pic gives a better idea of the size:

Have a great weekend.

Sara xxx

Santa Claus tree ornament

One of our challenges this month over at In Love With Stamping is to create an Ornament. This little triangle ornament uses just 1/4 of a sheet of A4 card plus a few punched scraps. It will only hold a few small sweets but then it's light enough to hang on the tree.

I got the idea from Brenda over at Qbee's Quest and adapted it for the punches that we have in the UK catalogue and to fit the dinky triangle box.

Recipe

Cardstock: Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: White Signo Gel Pen

Punches: Scallop Circle, Ornament, Word Window, 1/2" Circle, 1/4" Circle (or Crop-a-dile), Boho Blossoms

Other: Gold Elastic Cord

The triangle box base is made with a piece of Real Red cardstock approx 7.5cm x 21cm. Score and fold it in half along the long edge, then mark the centre of each short edge and score from that point to the outer edge of the original scoreline as shown in the following diagram.

Fold in half along the centre line and then fold A to cover C and B to cover D. Punch a small hole in the centre overlap of A and C, repeat in the centre overlap of B and D and thread with Gold Elastic Cord. Fill with sweets and tie as shown here.

Santa's face is punched from Pink Pirouette card with the Ornament and the top snipped off. His beard is a Scallop Circle of Whisper White card folded in half and his nose is a 1/2" Circle of Pink Pirouette cut in half. His eyes are 1/2" Circles of Whisper White with 1/4" Circles of Basic Black on top. A White Signo gel pen has been used to give a highlight to the pupil. His hat brim is the Word Window punched from Whisper White card. The pompom on his hat is the smallest of the Boho Blossoms punched from Whisper White card.

The folded beard allows space to add the intended recipients name.

Hope you like it.

Sara xx

ILWS colour challenge representing fireworks

A new month and so a new set of challenges. Our colour challenge over at In Love With Stamping this month represents fireworks:

Black, red, orange and yellow

Although I've used a couple of stamps for this card they only provide a very subtle effect and it could just as easily have been made with only punches.

Recipe

Stamp set: Delightful Decorations, Punch Potpourri (Level 1 hostess)

Cardstock: Basic Black, Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight

Punches: Scallop Trim Corner, Ornament, Boho Blossoms

The card blank is a 5" square of Basic Black. A mat of Daffodil Delight was adhered direct and then another layer of Basic Black was punched on all four corners with the Scallop Trim Corner and adhered direct. I stamped the spotted ornament from the Delightful Decorations set onto Whisper White card with Real Red ink, punched with the Ornament and then cut the point from the bottom of the bauble to make the vase. This was adhered direct. The flowers from the Punch Potpourri were stamped in the corresponding ink onto Real Red, Tangerine Tango and Daffodil Delight card and punched with the Boho Blossoms. Each of the flowers was popped up on a dimensional and arranged in a firework burst around the top of the vase.

So you see - Delightful Decorations and the Ornament punch aren't just for christmas!

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

Pumpkin lollipop for a Halloween treat

Our next challenge for October over at In Love With Stamping is to create Halloween themed goodies. It could be a card, treat packaging or some form of home decoration.

My offering is a very quick and simple lollipop holder, ideal if you've got lots to make and a good one to get the children to help with too. There's no stamping needed.

Recipe

Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie

Ink: Basic Black Marker, Cajun Craze

Punch: Large Oval

Satin Ribbon: Old Olive

Non-SU: Lollipop

The main lollipop holder is 12cm x 3.5cm of Pumpkin Pie card, scored at 4.5cm and 7.5cm along the long edge. This is folded around the lollipop and secured with a glue dot on each side of the lollipop stick. Three Large Ovals were punched from Pumpkin Pie and a face hand drawn on the centre one with a Basic Black marker. Cajun Craze ink was sponged around all edges of the ovals. The ovals were adhered to each other with the centre face one on top and popped up on dimensionals onto the lollipop holder base. It was finished by tying Old Olive Satin ribbon around the lollipop stick and trimming.

Here's a side view so you can see the lollipop.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

August inspiration challenge at ILWS

Our August inspiration challenge over at ILWS is this image:

I decided to use the four quarter layout and the colours to make this card:

Recipe

Cardstock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Apricot Appeal, Yoyo Yellow, Lavender Lace, Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Elegant Eggplant, Pink Passion

Punches: 5-Petal Flower, Extra-Large Two-Step Bird, Boho Blossoms

The card blank is a 4-1/4" square in Basic Black. Each quarter is cut to 2" square and adhered direct to the card blank. Leaves are punched using the Two-Step Bird and around half the stalk is trimmed off. This is secured on the reverse of the 5-Petal punched flower with a dimensional which is also used to adhere the flower to the square. Finally the smallest Boho Blossom flower is punched and snailed into the centre of the 5-Petal flower.

Hope to see your creations in the gallery soon.

Pop back tomorrow to see another challenge card, this time made with one of our great August Offer stamp sets.

Sara xx

A roaring good fun tissue pack holder and news of SWU contest and award

First, an apology. I haven't hopped to as many blogs as I would have liked this week, or even blogged as much as I would have liked.

The hotel I've been staying in for the training course is so convenient (my room was on Level 2 and the training room was on Level 1), the food is great (breakfast, second breakfast (aka. morning snack), 3 course lunch and afternoon snack all included and yes I am now a hippo, lol) but the internet arrangements are rubbish! It's something like £15 a day for internet connection. I already pay about a tenner more than that a month for my mobile broadband dongle that I took with me but I couldn't get a strong enough signal in the hotel to use it. Coincidence? I suspect not. After a couple of days I found a local coffee house that had a good enough signal but we don't get much time free within their opening hours.

It's back to Cardiff this afternoon for another week so please bear with me if I'm slow to stop by.

Now - onto the crafting. This week's challenge on Stamp With Us is to create anything but a card. I make plenty of boxes week to week anyway and so I decided instead, to make another handbag tissue holder (see here for earlier version). I love SU punches because for once, they're actually designed for use with card - so many on the market are only designed to punch paper. This project uses no stamps, just card, ink and punches:

Recipe

Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1-3/8" Circle, 1-1/4" Circle, 1/2" Circle, 1/8" Circle, Large Oval, Boho Blossoms, Corner Rounder

Non-SU: Small pack of tissues

The design is based on the one here by Angie Kennedy Juda. I adapted it for the punches that I have available. As we don't yet have the Small Oval punch over here I used the Large Oval, reinserted the Oval into the punch (as Angie does with the Scallop Circle to make the mane), to create a smaller oval (cut in half for the legs) and used the remaining piece for the tail. The 1" Circle punch is still on my wish list (I've gone for the new Butterfly, Heart to Heart and Eyelet Border punches, greedy aren't I, lol) so I used the 1-1/4" Circle punch instead. The tissue pack is then stuck to the inside back cover.

Please go take a look at the rest of the Design Team's creations and I hope that you have chance to play along this week. We have two new great incentives; a brand new blinkie award for the SWU top spot and a chance to win free entry to the Stamp With Us Winter online class.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sara xx