Pastel embossed Stampin Up By the seashore

We're off to the beach again soon for a short break and the girls have requested we take our fishing nets this time for them to go crabbing and rockpool fishing - hours of free entertainment! Here's a little project I created in honour of the many hours spent staring into the sands awaiting signs of life from prehistoric lifeforms ;)

The base card layer is Baked Brown Sugar overlaid with whisper white which have been sponged around the edges with baked brown sugar ink. I then acrylic block stamp with water spritz using my markers in blushing bride, baked brown sugar, smoky slate and so saffron to represent the elements of beachlife.

On top of that I've stamped a shell from the By the Seashore set in Versamark then heat embossed it with white embossing powder and the heat tool.

The sentiment is a nod in the direction of the time it takes to catch anything ;) and is again Versamarked and then embossed with gold embossing powder from the Fabulous phrases set.

By the seashore w 132582 £20.95, 126532 £16.95                     Heat Tool 129054 £25.95

Fabulous phrases w 128577 £33.95, c 120501 £26.95

Entering this project into Cute Card Thursday - by the seaside, Crafts for Eternity #134 anything goes, Sunday Stamper #268 - time, Crafty sentiments - summer holiday, Craft Room challenge #56 - heat emboss.

Tomorrows project is an unusual use of the Gorgeous Grunge "blood splatter" stamp as it has become affectionately known - see which one of the stamps in the set you think I am referring to ....

Drop me a line or leave me a comment if you'd like any of these products or a free catalogue - otherwise see you tomorrow!

Cath Kidston CASE'd card using Stampin Up best of flowers & pennant punch

So ... after yesterdays dark & mysterious creation, today's project is much more my normal style - I was inspired by a visit at the weekend to the nearby Burford Garden Centre where we spent a few hours perusing fine  fabrics, art, furniture, china, plants & childrens toys - a perfect Sunday afternoon blend!  

Whilst there I came across some gorgeous Cath Kidston "the home of modern vintage" fabric that I knew was just right for some sewing projects I have planned for the summer which served as my inspiration for this card celebrating our (so far) quintessential great British Summer ...

I started with some confetti cream card - I love this card for its speckled, aged look :) On the upper layer I sponged the edges with so saffron and then stamped using the best of flowers stamp set which i hand coloured in with stampin write marker pens to get the different colours on the flowers. I wouldn't want to be without my markers! Can you spy the vintage lace peeking out from under the pennants? 

I also stamped the card with the spots and splatters from Gorgeous Grunge stamp set - I am using this so much at the moment as it gives a lovely weathered and worn look which is perfect for my style of work. The sentiment is stamped in Rose Red and is from the Simply Sketched Hostess Set which can be purchased at a fabulous price when ordering over £150 from Stampin Up.

The banner pennants were punched using the Petite Pennants punch and then sponged around the edges in coordinating colours - I used pear pizazz, soft sky, rose red & so saffron. The ribbon is the new Soft Sky seam binding which is a beautiful pale soft sky blue :) The heart tag was punched using the heart punch and the little flower made with the cute Floral Fusions sizzlits die. Pearls, bakers twine and buttons are also from Stampin Up supplies.

Best of Flowers - clear only 133342 £13.95   Simply sketched - for orders £150+

 

Petite pennants punch 122361 £15.50     Floral Fusion Sizzlits 115969 £4.95

This creation is my entry for Crafts & Me #139- anything goes, Creative inspirations #224 - flowers, pearls, sentiment, Crafty creations #232 - summer, Totally papercrafts - use lace, Alphabet challenge - L is for Lace, One stop craft - flowers & ribbon.

On a related note, I have a new blog winners badge for my Make a Cake with bling badge card from the lovely crafters over at One Stop Craft and their Make Your Own background challenge last week.

My classes start up again in September after the summer break and are perfect for those in and around the Banbury, Oxfordshire area - if you'd more details on a no-obligation basis then get in touch at lisa.barton@hotmail.co.uk. Or if you've been inspired by todays creation and would like supplies to make your own I can order them for you - just drop me a line and I'll do the rest!

Pop back tomorrow for a seaside scene - bring your shades! 

Using Stampin Up silver embossing powder & wildflower meadow

Something a little different for you to start the week off; although it's bright and sunny outside today's project is dark & mysterious with the inspiration coming from the recent rain & thunder storms we have had...

Masking the whisper white cardstock using one of the set of 7 different sized oval framelits (129381 £22.95), I sponged midnight muse ink & the new colours smoky slate (131179 £4.95) & soft sky (131181 £4.95) over the unmasked area to create the moonlit night scene.

 I then Versamark'd (102283 £6.75) the Wildflower Meadow stamp and stamped directly onto the sponged area leaving a residue which was then covered with silver embossing powder (109131 £3.95). I used the Stampin Up heat tool (129054 £25.95) to set the silver powder - I love the way it bubbles and fizzes under the heat lamp :)

 Can you see the little silver dots from the stamp background? They look like little silver stars or jewels in the night :) The sentiment is from the Bring on the Cake stamp set.

 Wildflower Meadow stamp and coordinating embossing folder 
w 129165 £15.95, c 129168 £12.95
folder 129376 £7.50

Bring on the Cake stamp set w 128490 £34.95, c 121958 £27.95

I'm entering this project into this weeks Craft Room challenge #56 - heat embossing, craft rooms sentiments - bling, Fashionista challenge #18 - wings.

Hope you enjoy the project, if you'd like a catalogue or need any of the supplies then please drop me a line at lisa.barton@hotmail.co.uk or leave me a comment and I will get in touch. Pop back tomorrow for a very vintage summer project a la Cath Kidston style :)

Candle celebrations

Another one from the Cycle Celebrations stamp set - amongst all the bicycle theme stamps there nestles a solitary candle - thought it looked a bit lonely on it's own so I've given it some rainbow pastel friends ...

I embossed some pool party cardstock with the honeycomb embossing folder and then overlaid some whisper white card with rounded corners on top.

The label was handcut with same rounded corners and stamped using one of the Gorgeous Grunge stamps in Blushing Bride and the sentiment in Daffodil Delight on top of it, dimensioned and attached with some little brads.

 The yellow gingham border at the top is created using some of the gorgeous Gingham Garden washi tape which can be seen with the 2 other rolls that generously come in the pack. Such cute pegs eh?

Kind of think the design matches the sketch over at CAS colours & sketches this week too so we'll give it a whirl :)

Hope you are having a lovely relaxing day and crafting if you can, I will be busy in my craft room later cooking up some more summer surprises for you to sample next week!

If you’d like to purchase any of the products featured or would like a catalogue please let me know! And if you never want to miss an update - just pop your email address into the Daily updates by email box top right - you'll get an email every time I update my blog with fresh ideas and inspiration :)

How to make Stampin Up sweet treats & wrappers for the kids

Welcome to the weekend! On Saturdays my girls are allowed a little sweet treat - and as it's nice to make something ordinary into the extraordinary once in a while on a recent jaunt into town I made these little sweetie treats for them instead being nagged, I mean encouraged, to go into their favourite old fashioned sweet shop and half bankrupt me ;)

Simple really - just a Stampin Up cellophane bag, filled with fizzy, chewy, sticky treats including a wrapped & stamped kitkat punched with scallop circle and circle punches. All stamps are from the Cycle Celebration set and the papers are a mix of gingham garden & birthday basics.

Not much explaining required today!

I blinged the bike up a little with basic rhinestones at the centre of the spokes, the tag edge is made by the scallop edge punch for some fancy edges - which is this weeks challenge at Lets craft and create #75, along with a birthday numbers challenge at Ladybug crafts and a punches/diecuts challenge at Papercrafting journey.

And of course we couldn't forget the pop! I've tried to hide the make of drink - apologies if it offends or contravenes any legality in anyway! The labels were punched using the large oval punch & adhered to the belly band with dimensionals to make them "pop"! ;)

And so all was well for the 15 minutes it took to demolish this little lot - then the moaning began again that I never do/never buy anything for them - ho hum! 

 

Cycle Celebration w 130270 £19.95, c 130273 £15.95

Birthday basics designer series paper 130145 £9.95

Gingham Garden designer series paper 129310 £9.95

As always, if you’d like to purchase any of the products featured or would like a catalogue please drop me a line at lisa.barton@hotmail.co.uk or leave me a comment and I will get in touch. Don't forget you can get 20% off catalogue prices if you join me in Stampin Up - more information can be found here. And if you never want to miss an update - just pop your email address into the Daily updates by email box top right - you'll get an email every time I update my blog with fresh ideas and inspiration :)

Hope your day is just as sweet! Pop back tomorrow for a candle creation using more of the Cycle Celebration set, see you then!

Party invites with Stampin Up sketched birthday

This weeks challenge over at Rubys Rainbow is Layer it Up and at Crafty Cardmakers it's birthday - so as I was creating daughter #2's party invitations I thought I'd use these themes as my creative inspiration. 

Here's the result ..

As the invites are for girls and boys alike, I thought I'd better not just stick to pink and girly! Taped in cellophane to the back of the invite were some colouring pencils for a bit of summer holiday colouring fun :)

My background card was melon mambo and I stamped all over it with balloon and party hat images from the Sketched Birthday set - making your own unique stamped backgrounds is great fun!

The next 2 layers of tags were cut from Island Indigo and Confetti Cream card and shaped with the corner rounder punch - such a little punch but so useful to add that little bit of extra detail onto a project. 

Lastly the sentiments were stamped, punched with coordinating Stampin Up punches and then layered using stampin dimensionals for a pop effect. The tags were tied with some Raspberry Ripple stitched grosgrain ribbon and some gingham garden washi tape made into ribbon for a contrast.

Sketched birthday w 130423 £21.95, c 130426 £17.95

Corner punch 119871 £6.25

Today they hit the post box and my daughters will eagerly await the replies - problem is with a mid August birthday we know that lots of children will be away so we always invite double numbers - have never considered what I would do if they all arrived on the day ;)

As always, if you’d like to purchase any of the products featured or would like a catalogue please drop me a line at lisa.barton@hotmail.co.uk or leave me a comment and I will get in touch. Don't forget you can get 20% off catalogue prices if you join me in Stampin Up - more information can be found here.

And if you never want to miss an update - just pop your email address into the Daily updates by email box top right - you'll get an email every time I update my blog with fresh ideas and inspiration :)

See you at the weekend for some sweetie treats :)

Stampin Up photo frame makeover & bag - a - lopes

As I am sure you're aware by now, I like pretty. So when I came across some plain wood photo frames from Ikea lurking in my craft stash I knew their fate ;) 

A lick of candy colour paint, some rubber stamping & paper punching and voila - gifts worthy of my daughters friends for end of school term keepsakes ...

The first frame was stamped randomly with a mix of Lovely Little Labels and now retired Itty Bitty Bits sstamps in all the purple hues of Stampin Markers & Inks

The next frame was stamped in pinks with stamps from Papillion Potpourri, the retired Collage Curios & Kindness Matters sets with the sentiment from Little Friends.

Both sets of butterflies were punched with the Elegant Butterfly & Itty Bitty Butterfly punches out of Rich Razzleberry card & Polka Parade designer series paper and embellished with basic rhinestones.

To package the frames, I made bag-a-lopes out of Stampin Up Whisper White envelopes by slicing the top of the envelope off, scoring & creasing 1" inch from both edges and then pushing them apart to make a larger gusset - if you'd like a video tutorial please leave me a comment! 

The hand made flowers on the bag a lopes were made from Soho Subway designer series papers die cut with the scallop circle die, spritzed and crumpled. The cute little hanging tag is from a now retired soda pop top from the Spring/Summer catalogue stamped with a sentiment from Fabulous phrases and complete with a flock (?) of butterflies from the make a cake stamp set.

I finished my last class for the summer last night - phew it was hot! - Classes start again in September and we kickoff with a cute recipe box & divider cards perfect for all those Autumn/Harvest/Thanksgiving recipes - look out for dates published soon!

Entering these creations into Less is More - handmade flowers, Cute daisy May - 2 or more diecuts, Kaboodle Doodles # 181 Anything goes, Papertake weekly - dies & punches, Charisma cardz - make own embellishments - flowers, soda tops, butterflies.

We're back in the party mood tomorrow with a sneak peek at daughter #2's forthcoming party invites :)

Using tags on card with Stampin Up Gorgeous grunge & postage due stamps

We're off on our holidays soon and to start the excitement ball rolling I created some little travel tags cards which detail our itinerary whilst away ...

The challenge this week over at CAS colours & sketches #34 caught my eye - chocolate chip, crumb cake & summer starfruit - just three colours but so visually effective!

The bicycle is from the Postage Due stamp set and has been overstamped with elements from the Gorgeous Grunge set - fast becoming one of my favourites! I also stamped the summer starfruit cardstock and the base card layer with the same stamps. 

The celebrate sentiment is from the fabulous phrases stamp set which has 30, yes 30!! different words to make your own sentiments & phrases :) 

A little whisper white bakers twine to complete the tags and the card was complete - just another 6 to make! 

 Postage Due w 132064 £19.95, c 126397 £15.95

Gorgeous Grunge w 130514 £21.95, c 130517 £17.95

Fabulous Phrases w 128577 £33.95, c 120501 £26.95 

The challenges over at Allsorts #216 - transport, Sketch Saturday and Here come the boys #56 - anything goes, crafts for eternity - paint/ink (I thought the splodges on the tags were great for this!), Freshly Made Sketches #96 also fitted this project nicely.

Tomorrow I have another 3D photo project to show you - and how you can upcycle your old picture frames - catch you then!