Happy Birthday Bricks

My nephew is learning the art of bricklaying, so I wanted to try and do something involving bricks for his 18th birthday card.

The bricks didn't take as long as I thought they might to do. First I wheeled the Texture Jumbo wheel over Cajun Craze card stock using Early Espresso Ink. Then I wheeled using Cherry Cobbler at right angles to the first direction, to give some variation of colour. I cut the card into 1cm strips, and then into 2cm bricks and sponged all the edges using Early Espresso and a sponge dauber.

I created the wall by sticking the bricks to textured Sahara Sand card, leaving gaps to be the mortar. Then trimmed the card around the bricks.

The card base is Confetti White card, sponged with Old Olive and Marina mist to create a background. The wall was stuck on top of the background, and then extra bricks glued on to spell out HAPPY.


The balloons were stamped in Marina Mist ink onto Marina Mist card. I cut out the stamped images, but cut off the little balloon necks. Instead I used the feet from the owl punch to make the necks. I punched out the bottom portion of the owl body, and cut off the feet, leaving a little tab on them to stick behind the balloons. Then tied linen thread around the necks. Wrapped the thread around a brick, and tied again.

The birthday word was stamped onto a scrap of white card, then trimmed into a wonky rectangle using scissors. Sponged the edges with Early Espresso and then stuck onto a scrap of Early Espresso and trimmed around to give a border. Cut a little strip of Early Espresso for the sign post, and hand drew some lines to represent wood grain before sponging the edges. The little pile of mortar is free-hand cut from textured Sahara Sand card, sponged and little hump lines drawn on by hand. Used a craft knife to cut a little slit above one of the hump lines to insert the sign post.

Stuck the pile of mortar and the post on to the card base, then the brick and balloons, finally the birthday sign was mounted on top using dimensionals.



My favourite part I think was making the little trowel using some brushed silver card with a little rolled strip of Early Espresso for the handle.

Card/Paper: Confetti White, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Marina Mist, Whisper White, Textured Sahara Sand, Brushed Silver

Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Old Olive

Stamps: Party This Way, Birthday Best, Texture Jumbo Wheel

Other: Linen Thread, Owl Punch, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet (numbers)

Card Size: 21cm x 10.5cm (approx 8" x 4")

Ribbon and Paper Shares

Everyone who participates in a share will have their name entered into a prize draw to win a free stamp set. You will have one name put in for each share that you take part in.

Please use the contact me tab at the top of my blog to let me know which shares you would like to participate in.

I am only able to offer these shares to you if you are in the UK, and they cannot count as part of a stampers ten order, or be part of any other special offer.


RIBBON SHARES



This is the yummy new In Color 1cm wide Ruffled Ribbon from Stampin' Up! There are five colours: Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Wisteria Wonder.

I am offering a share of 1m of each colour for £5.50 including postage to the UK.





This is the equally yummy new 1.3cm wide Scallop Dot Ribbon. It comes in ten colours: Cherry Cobbler, Elegant Eggplant, Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Old Olive, More Mustard and Marina Mist.

I am offering a share of 1m of each colour for £8.30 including postage to the UK.



And finally, here is the ever popular 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. Stampin' Up! now carry this ribbon in no less than 17 different colours: Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Rich Razzleberry, Real Red, Garden Green, Pretty in Pink, Marina Mist and Basic Black.

I am offering a share of 1m of each colour for £6.20 including postage to the UK.



PAPER SHARE



There are four new Speciality Designer Series Papers in the new catalogue: Mocha Morning, Flirtatious, First Edition and Holly Berry. There are also ten new regular Designer Series Papers: Paisley Petals, Beau Chateau, Beyond the Garden, Domestic Goddess, Frightful Sight, Timeless Portrait, Just Add Cake, Nursery Nest, Big Top Birthday and Well Worn.

I am offering a share of one 6" x 6" piece of each of the papers listed above for £21 including postage to the UK. They will come packaged as you see in the photo above, so would be perfect for a gift for someone as well. If you are purchasing for a gift, let me know, and I can change the greeting stamped in the top corner to something suitable.

Below is a picture of all the papers laid out for you to see. If you click on the image to enlarge it, and then click again, you should be able to scroll around the picture and get a good, close look. Although I have to say that the photo does not do them justice - the colours are more vibrant, and the speciality touches such as the glitter on some of the Holly Berry papers and the flocking and metallic paint on the Mocha Morning papers needs to be seen to be appreciated!

Also, please note that because of the package configuration for the Flirtatious paper, you will receive one colour only of the laser cut doily paper. This paper will be either Pumpkin Pie or Melon Mambo on one side, and white on the other (as shown in the photo). However, because there are 24 sheets of paper in the First Edition pack, you will receive two pieces of each of this pack.

So in all, that adds up to 90 sheets of quality designer paper for only £21 - 23p per sheet!

Clapper Card

It's my second daughter's birthday next week. Last year she graduated from film school, and is currently working on developing a career in cinematography. So I thought that a clapper birthday card might be fun! It came together pretty easily - just sticking on the white strips for the chevrons was a bit fiddly to get them lined up right.

The card is hinged to open just like a real clapper, and the top pulls out a card with the greeting on. The bottom portion of the card is a piece of black folded at the bottom and glued together down each side to make a pocket for the greeting part to slide in and out of. The top of the clapper is also a very shallow pocket, with the greeting card stuck between the two layers to hold it in place. The hinges are shaped pieces of card, glued to the base part, with the brad at the top being the hinge for the clapper.

The lines are drawn using a ruler and my trusty SU white gel pen. Then the writing is all done by hand also with the gel pen.

Card/Paper: SU Basic Black & Whisper White

Ink: Black Stazon

Stamps: Dot Happy Birthday stamp from Inca

Other: White Gel pen, SU pewter brads

Card Size: 17cm x 12.5cm

New Idea Book & Catalogue and Shares

It's here! Or rather it was here on Saturday, but being me I'm a little behind! 133 pages of lovely SU goodies. That's just over a sixth bigger than last year. If you have signed up to be in one of my stampers ten groups, you should already have received your copy by now. If not, and you would like to see a copy here's how:

Click here to download a pdf copy.
Click here to view the online catalogue.
Click on the contact me tab at the top of my blog (or if you are receiving this blog post as an email just reply to the email) and request a paper copy of the catalogue. I can post one to anywhere in the UK for £5.00 including the postage.
Or, I have just one place left in my stampers ten group starting this month. If you are in the UK and would like to join, you will receive a free catalogue. Click here for more details.


I am running a paper share for all the new Designer Series Papers in the catalogue. There are 14 different packs of paper, and the share will be for one 6" x 6" piece of each paper. Most of the packs have the usual six double sided designs, so there will be one piece of each of these designs from all of those packs. The exceptions to this will be for two of the Speciality papers:

Flirtatious Speciality - there will be one piece of each of the five double sided designs, and one piece of the laser cut doily paper, which will be in either one of the two colours from the pack on one side, and white on the other. The colours will be randomly allocated to the shares.

First Edition Speciality - this pack has 24 sheets in it, instead of the usual 12, and the sheets are a lighter weight paper than the usual SU DSP. So you will receive two of each design from this pack - ie 12 sheets instead of 6 for this one pack.

So altogether there will be 90 sheets of 6" x 6" high quality Designer Series Paper for the price of £21 including postage to you. If you are able to collect your paper from me, then the price will be £18.

This share cannot be combined with any other offer from me, or be counted as part of a stampers ten order. It is only available to people in the UK.

Click on the contact me tab at the top of my blog (or if you are receiving this blog post as an email just reply to the email) to ask for a spot on this paper share.

I'll be back with some ribbon shares tomorrow.

Little Bird Gift Bag

This is a really quick and easy little bag to make, and takes one piece of A4 paper. No template needed, just a cutting and scoring board - the combined one that I have the Fiskars Paper Trimmer, that can be used to do both on the same board makes it even quicker! As soon as I get the chance, I'll put together a little how to on making it.

EDIT: I have now done the tutorial which is here.

The closure is very handy - no bow tying required, and also quick to do. I'll put that in the tutorial too.

This bag is the one that I made for table favours for my daughters wedding, but I still don't have any to photograph. Hoping to get hold of a couple still . ..

Card/Paper: Old Olive, So Saffron, Cajun Craze, More Mustard

Ink: Old Olive, Cajun Craze

Stamps: Very Vintage Wheel

Other: Old Olive 5/8" satin ribbon, basic pearl, Bird Builder punch, Cropadile

Birthday Windmill

This fun little windmill was made using a punch from the new Stampin' Up! catalogue. Very simply made by punching out four of the plain sided pennants, and then curling them and sticking to a little circle. Another circle with a brad stuck on the top to finish before sticking the whole thing to a wooden cocktail stick. More punched pennants along the bottom of the card. The lovely cheerful bright paper is also new.

Card/Paper: Wild Wasabi, Peach Parfait, Whisper White, Just Add Cake dsp

Ink: Wild Wasabi

Stamps: Party This Way

Other: So Saffron Brad, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch, Petite Pennants Builder Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder

Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

Circles and Lace

Another idea I pinched from the display board to show off the In Colors again!

Of course, Stampin' Up! is known for it's co-ordination between products, and in this case the co-ordination is the fact that a 1" punched circle fits exactly behind the flower shape in the new Lace Ribbon Border punch. So here I have used all the colours again, to create this pretty effect behind the lace.

Card/Paper: Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Calypso Coral

Ink: None

Stamps: None

Other: Lace Ribbon Border Punch, 1" Circle Punch

Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

Pear Pizzazz and Ribbon Lace

After making my daughter's wedding stationery earlier this year, I ended up with a large pile of full length A4 strips of Whisper White card. How convenient then, that the new catalogue coming out on October 1st has a punch ideal for using up all those strips!

The lacey border on this card is simply threaded with the narrow ribbon, and finished off with some pearls. I just added a few white flowers and a spray of leaves to finish off at the top.

The flowers are made using the largest shape from the Boho Blossoms punch. I snipped in between each petal to make them longer, and then shaped them a little bit with my embossing ball tool. The centres are just the largest circle from the Cropadile, shaped into a cup shape and then inverted in the centre of the flower over a blob of glue.

Card/Paper: Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Old Olive

Stamps: Sincere Salutations

Other: Basic Pearls, 1/8" Taffeta Old Olive, Lace Ribbon Border Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch, Cropadile, Little Leaves die

Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

New Colours

I can't believe that it's less than a week now, until the new Stampin' Up! catalogue goes live in the UK! The year since the last one seems to have gone so fast. So I thought I'd show you a little sneak peek of the new In-Colors - all five of them on this card. Also a tiny bit of a new punch is in there - the idea pinched from a display sample I saw at an SU training meeting. Not the usual use for that punch, but quite nifty!

Each strip of card has had the bottom corners rounded with the Corner Rounder punch, and then was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots folder. The little centre piece punched out of the larger design of the new punch was added to the end of the strip of card, with a pearl to finish.

Just a little bit of scoring on either side of the greeting to finish off. Quick and easy card!

Card/Paper: Shimmery White, Island Indigo, Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral

Ink: Island Indigo

Stamps: Curly Cute

Other: Corner Rounder punch, Lace Ribbon Border Punch, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Basic Pearls

Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

Two Frame Cards

More photos from the archives! These two cards were both made using one Marianne die set called Straight Frame LR0111. A couple of additional punches - the leaves on the one above were from a Martha Stewart punch, the little butterflies were a Woodware punch and the centres of the smaller flowers on the card below were a Woodware snowflake punch.

On the card above, the frame was cut out of a single layer of card, and sponged before sticking to the base card in the centre and on all of the points. Under each curve there is a foam pad, so that the frame has a ripple effect up and down around the edge. Not that easy to see on the photo, but adds a nice bit of dimension. On the card below the frame was cut out of a folded piece of card, with the fold just skimming below the top of the curves to create the hinge. A layer of card has been added to the centre of both the front and the inside back to add a bit of strength and stability to the card base. The die cut base, and the centre layer have both been sponged to bring out the detail of the embossing (which is done by the die as well).

I still can't decide which one I prefer!