Card Swap 7 and 8

Greetings lovely bloggers!  Be prepared for a long post today.  Typically, I am massively behind in posting about the last couple of card swaps.  Scarily, Jane has just sent out the email regarding the 9th card swap - so I thought I had better get my act together!

 

Card swap 7 - the theme was to have a sentiment as the main feature.  Now, I'm not really big on sentiments (you may have noticed this already).  I like a simple little "happy birthday" or "thank you" etc.  So I was a little bit scared to have to make it the main feature.  I admit that I tried a few ideas with stamps and inks and I just wasn't happy with the results.  So I got out my favourite SU Paper Stack in the current In-Colours and cut out the letters of hello in Baked Brown Sugar and Pistachio Pudding dotty paper.  These were mounted onto white card, which in turn was mounted onto corresponding card stock (I added a little border of piercing for interest).  I mounted a piece of the Pistachio Pudding  dotty paper onto the base card and added the sentiment on top.  It did look a little bare, so on the advice of my daughter, I added some punched flowers and gems in the corners.

 

I was quite pleased with the result  I hope the recipient was too.

 

The card I received was amazing!  I was totally blown away by it.  It was made by the lovely Margaret who is such a talented lady (check out her blog here ).  I don't think the photos truly do it justice, but it is definitely my favourite card so far.

So onto card swap 8.  The theme this time was to create an Autumnal card.  Now I don't really have any leaf stamps from SU so I reached for a really old Hero Arts set that was just perfect.  The rest of the materials are all SU.  I stamped all three leaf designs in a variety of colours - More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Real Red and Early Espresso - onto a single piece of white card stock.  I softened the edges with an Aqua pen and trimmed the panel into three pieces.  I made a card blank from Crumb Cake and then cut a slight smaller panel out of the same card stock and stamped the Woodgrain stamp onto it with Early Espresso.  The three leaf panels were mounted on top. I then cut a band from More Mustard and stamped a sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments in Early Espresso.  The leaf embellishments were cut out and I used Glossy Accents to give them a bit of a shine.  These were stuck to the band when they were dry.

Again I'm quite pleased with the results - a bit of a departure for me - and, again, I really hope the recipient likes it.  I felt quite bad because I was very late in sending my card off, but actually as I haven't received my card for October yet, I cut myself some slack!

The subject for November's card swap is to use your all time favourite stamp, so this is going to require a lot of thought -  I do have rather a lot of stamps that I have accumulated over the last 18 years!

I mentioned in my last post, that I had made a card for my parents' wedding anniversary, and here it is.  I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest (what would we do without it?!), but tweaked it a bit.

The products are all SU.  The stamps are Creative Elements and Teeny Tiny Sentiments, and the colours are Old Olive and Tangerine Tango.  I used a variety of punches and some retired Scallop Dots ribbon.  This card did take me a while to make as I had a couple attempts at the stamping and the aperture until I was fully satisfied with the result.  I'm very pleased because there is still quite a lot of white space on the card!

So that's all the cards and photos for the time being.  Last weekend I was away at a Scrapbags Retreat - three days in a hotel scrapping all day - bliss!  I really have the scrapping bug now, but save it for retreats and crops, otherwise I would never get any cards made!  I'm still trying to get my Christmas cards finished, not panicking quite yet!  And with all this, we are still in the middle of University visits and UCAS - but that at least is all under control!

OK, that's me for today.  I hope you stuck with me, you are amazing if you did!  Thanks for popping in, and I really love hearing your comments, so thank you.

Take care and have a good week.

Michelle x

Card Swap Group - 6

 

Hi all. Just a quick post today.  Our card swap this month was to make a tag or a bookmark.  I elected to make a bookmark as you can see, or rather two bookmarks!

 

The first one I made was the pink flowery one.  I used Morning Madness and Gorgeous Grunge, stamped in Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar, with a little bit of Early Espresso.  I mounted the white card on Baked Brown Sugar.

 

Having made this one, I wasn't sure, so I made another one!  This time I sponged a piece of Pool Party card with Not Quite Navy, then stamped various images from Best of Shelli and Gorgeous Grunge in Elegant Eggplant, Not Quite Navy, Pacific Point and Concord Crush.  I added some PP ribbon and mounted the stamped card on Concord Crush cs.  So my recipient Zoe, got two for the price of one!

Hope you all have a fab week.  Thanks for dropping by.  Take care

Michelle x

Mother-in-Law's Birthday

Hi all.  Hope everyone is well.  Today I am sharing with you the two cards that I made for my MIL's birthday that was last Monday.

 

I can take no design credit for the first one.  I have shamelessly ripped off the idea from Vicky Hayes here but it was so inspired by her card, that it had to be done.  The colours are exactly as Vicky has used - Primrose Petals and Pistachio Pudding, with a little bit of Early Espresso in the centre of the flowers.  The flowers are from the wonderful hostess set, Morning Meadow, and the lettering is from Notable Alphabet.

 

I made the second card for the children to send to their Grandma.  The colours are Baked Brown Sugar and Coastal Cabana. and I used the Flowering Flourishes as the background.  I decided to have a go at the scoring technique I have seen on a few cards recently, but did it on the back of the card instead of the front.  I was a bit cross with myself to begin with, for getting it wrong, but actually I rather like it. I punched out some butterflies and added a few diamantes.  The sentiment is from Morning Meadow (I think!!).

 

This week has passed by in a blur.  I've done a little bit of card making but not as much as I had hoped.  I've been to the cinema with the children to see Despicable Me 2, which was very funny, particularly the Minions.  I've had a day scrapping at a summer Scrapbags, and I went to an evening wedding reception, which was fab.  The weekend has been very quiet, and all I have wanted to do is sleep and read (although I did have to get stuck in to the ironing mountain!).

 

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.  Thanks for dropping by.

 

Take care

 

Michelle x

 

 

Card Swap Group - 5

I can't believe it's August already!  My blogging hasn't improved since I've been on holiday.  My grand plans of all day card making haven't materialised either. To be honest I really didn't get much done last week at all - probably because I was laid low with a summer cold.  However I am feeling much brighter now, and much more motivated.  I want to get ahead of all the birthdays over the next few months, and I have a lot to make.  I've also made a start on . . .  wait for it . . . Christmas cards!!!  I know!  I don't even like to use the C word before October, but last year I was so panicked and ran out of time, that I don't want a rerun of that this year.  I won't share them yet though, it's far to early for that!

 

I am finally getting around to share the Card Swap Group cards for last month.  The task was to make a card no bigger than 4" x 4".  My card was made by the lovely Jane, and I really like the simplicity of it.  The colour is Calypso Coral, which is a favourite of mine.  I like the embossed frame around the aperture, and the little stamped image is really sweet.  Thanks Jane.

 

Here is the card I made for Sue.  My favourite SU stamp set of the moment is the Six Sided Sampler with the co-ordinating hexagon punch.  I am sure I have mentioned this once or twice recently!  I used two of the new In-Colours - Pistachio Pudding and Coastal Cabana, and the butterflies are from Papillon Potpourri.  I can't remember which set the sentiment is from.  A few diamantes were added for a little bit of bling.

Because I liked the card so much, I made a couple more in a different colour way - Strawberry Slush and Baked Brown Sugar.

This month's swap is a little bit different - we have to make a bookmark or a tag.  I've got a few ideas bubbling around but nothing definite at the moment.  I'm thinking I'll make a tag but that could all change!

I have spent quite a lot of time reading this last week.  My friend has got me totally hooked on The Game of Thrones series of books.  I didn't think they would be my cup of tea - but I couldn't be more wrong - I can't put them down!  I can't recommend them highly enough.

Well, that's me done for now.  Hope you all have a great week.  I'm off for a stroll around blog land.

Take care.

Michelle x

Happy Birthday Charis

Woohoo - it's the first day of the summer holiday!  It's been a long, hot, emotional few weeks and now it's all over.  Yesterday I said a very tearful goodbye to 30 brilliant children, who I've known since they were four years old. The day was even more emotional as our Head Teacher left.  I am so pleased for him as he is moving on to a bigger school, but sad for me as he employed me and believed in me, and has been very supportive to me over the last few years.  But things change, and September is a long way off.

 

Anyway, enough of that!  Today is my niece's 17th birthday, and here is the card I made for her.

 

My absolute favourite products of the moment are encapsulated on this card.  I love the Six Sided Sampler and matching Hexagon punch (anyone who knows me, knows I adore hexagons!).  Papillon Potpourri is just incredible, teamed with the Bitty Butterfly punch, and as for the new In-Colours - they are just my favourite Stampin' Up colours ever!  Here I have used Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe.

 

 

The card was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest - can't give a name-check unfortunately as I didn't make a note of it and now can't find it!

 

I'll be back soon with a slightly different version of this card. 

 

Have a good day and thanks for dropping by.  Take care

 

Michelle x