Box Cards

Hi everyone.  Hope you are all having a lovely weekend. Today is the last day of half term which is a little sad.  My house is very quiet.  Emily went back to University yesterday.  Mark has gone off to France for the week for work and I am left here with a teenage boy who doesn't speak much (grunts occasionally), and a sulking dog!  It's going to be a long week!

 

Half term was lovely, if too short (I know, we are never satisfied).  I spent time with my children, met a friend for coffee.  Mark and I had a lovely day in London visiting the poppies (mesmerising), I chilled out, I spent a day scrapbooking at the Scrapbags Autumn Retreat (couldn't do all three days) and I even made 22 (yes, 22!) Christmas cards.  I would say, it was a very successful week.

 

And, I have managed to blog twice :)

 

Today I am showing the box cards that I have made recently.  The first two were for friends having special birthdays.  I used the same colour scheme for both, and the same SU paper stack.

 

The final card was made for my parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary which was on Friday.  Not my usual style - I prefer silver to gold, but it was a "Golden" Wedding Anniversary!  So I thought I would go the whole hog!  My parents really liked it, my mum texted me from their cruise down the Danube to tell me so.

 

So, my next project is to make my mum a birthday card for her 70th birthday, which is in two weeks.  Two major events in her life, less than three weeks apart - she could have planned this better!  Joking Mum!

 

Anyway, thanks for popping in.  I love hearing you comments.

 

Take care

 

Michelle x

Some recent cards (from the last 5 months!)

Hi.  Just popping in to share some cards that I have made over the fast few months.  They are various birthday cards and Card Swap group cards.

 

I love this butterfly stamp from SU - now sadly retired. I've not done that much with it, but I love the simplicity of the white and the navy blue (possibly Midnight Muse??).

 

The next card was for the Card Swap group - the challenge being Pool Party with black and white.  You can't really see it, but there is a little bit of crystal glitter on the flowers.

I borrowed this idea from Pinterest, just changed the colour scheme.  I like the fading dots (stamping more than once before re-inking).

I went a bit crazy with the new In-Colours!  My favourite is Blackberry Bliss and I've been using it a lot (and wearing it stained on my hands!).  They are perfect for Autumn.  The only one I didn't use was Lost Lagoon, which is gorgeous too.

Another birthday card.  Like the bold flower (Blackberry Bliss), with the orange middle - glitter glue for dimension.

Hopefully, I'll be sharing a few more over the next day or so.

It's half term this week (hooray!).  It's been a long eight weeks of term.  I am pleased to say that my daughter Emily has settled into university life really well, and is having a very good time.  She is home this week as she has a reading week, it's just really nice to have her home (even with the cliché bag of washing!).  In September, I went away on a week long residential school trip to Wales.  Good fun but exhausting.  I even completed a mud challenge - an assault course with a sadistic instructor pouring buckets of muddy water over you.  I'm sure he had it in for me!  No photos luckily.  Edward has mock GCSEs coming up in about five weeks, so his half-term is going to consist of revising, poor boy.  We have to go to a sixth-form evening the week after next - it just seems too soon :(

Anyway, that's me done for now.  Thanks for dropping by and hopefully I'll be back soon.

Take care

Michelle x

It's been how long??!!

 

Well, that's the probably the longest gap in my blogging history!  The last couple of months have been pretty crazy, with not a lot of card making going on, sadly.  I have, however, had a new kitchen fitted, made a Technicolour Dreamcoat, been on two holidays and made lots of preparations for my daughter going to university in less than 2 weeks.  More of all that another time (hopefully!).

 

I did manage to make a card for my husband to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary, which we spent in Berlin.  We had a wonderful time and fell in love with the city.

 

The card features the Kinda Eclectic stamp set - the first time I have used it.  My colour choices were Mossy Meadow, Real Red and Smoky Slate.  I cut a frame for the leaf border to give a bit more dimension to the card.  The sentiments were stamped on strips and cut into banners, and the butterflies are mounted on foam pads.

 

Two of our wedding photos.  I can't believe 20 years have gone by, it really doesn't feel like it.  We look like kids.

Thanks for dropping by.  I can't say when I will be back as the next two weeks are going to be very busy, and I'm back to work tomorrow. But I will try not to leave it so long :)

Take care

Michelle x

Card Swap - June

This month's card swap was right up my street - to make a card where part of the front is missing.  I cut a 4cm horizontal strip from the lower portion of a 15cm square card, and filled it with punched out flowers stamped from the SU Petite Petals set - one of my favourites. I used three of the new SU In-Colours - Blackberry Bliss, Tangelo Twist and Lost Lagoon.  Blackberry Bliss lives up to its name, it's divine!

 

For a little bit more interest, I pierced holes around the outside of the card, 3D mounted a few of the flowers, and added some gems.  The sentiment is by Marion Emberson (I think!).

 

It's been another manic week in the Frecklepuss household - although when isn't it?  Edward is off on his proper DofE expedition on Saturday - at least we know what to expect this time.  The weather forecast looks more promising too - no heavy rain, gales or hail - so fingers crossed, he should be OK!

Take care and thanks for dropping by.

Michelle x

Pop Up Box Cards

Hi all.  Just popping in to share a couple of cards with you this evening.  I decided to have a little play with the pop-up box cards that are doing the rounds at the moment.  I'm not usually a fan of cards like this but I thought I'd give it a go.  I bought a kit from Craftwork Cards rather than faff about trying to work out all of the measurements.  The kit came with the flowers and the printed panels.

 

I actually made this card for my sister's birthday and she was delighted.

 

 

The only problem with the kit was how to attach the flowers to the box.  The suggestion was to cut "Y" shaped pieces of white card and attach them to that before attaching that to the box.  I didn't find that entirely satisfactory.

 

The I was inspired by a card Lucy Tustian posted on her blog (see it here ) and just knew I had a make a version of it - it's fab.  The plan was to make the card for my daughter's birthday later on in the month, but she's hinted at a Frozen card (she's going to be 19!).  So instead, I made it for her friend who turned 18 on Thursday.

 

The colour scheme is Strawberry Slush, black, white and silver, and I used the fabulous Simply Stars stamp set.  The black lace is a tape that I bought from QVC a few years ago.  The paper is SU.

You can see from the last two photos that I used acetate to attach the stars. It's a heavy duty acetate and it made it so much easier to add all the stars rather than faffing about with silly bits of card!

I hope you like these two cards.  They were good fun to make and well received.

Thanks for dropping by.

Take care

Michelle x

Family Birthday and Card Swap

 

Hi everyone.  This week has seen us celebrate Edward's 15th birthday.  He had a good time although it seemed quite low-key - a meal out and then a small family get together.  He was happy though that his birthday was over half-term so that he didn't have to go to school!

 

I wasn't sure what to do for his card this year, but after much discussion, Emily and I decided that a Hobbit theme would fit the bill.  I usually make this type of card as a 9-square one, but Emily insisted on 16 pictures and so the card size had to be increased to accommodate them all.  The card is 8" square.  Edward was delighted.

 

 

Of course we had to have a suitable sentiment inside.  Mark found this font on-line and it was just perfect.

 

Emily and I have been winding Edward up a lot recently by singing songs from Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat so it only seemed fitting to make a Joseph themed card for Emily to give to him!  He was SO impressed.

So, this month's card swap was all about banners and pennants.  This is the card I received from Ann.  It's really lovely and I like the shades of brown and the way she has used the banners to make the sentiment.

I really struggled for this challenge and I don't know why.  I think it's because I have recently made a card for Jane with banners on and I wanted to do something completely different.  I took my inspiration from Pinterest and pretty much CASEd this card.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, even though there is no white space on it at all!  It took me a long time to make but I enjoyed it immensely.

 

 

The colours are Very Vanilla, Strawberry Slush, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso.  The stamps are Hardwood, Banner Blast, Best of Shelli and Chalk Talk.  I also used some Hot Cocoa Liquid Pearls.

 

Well, I didn't sleep much last night, too much on my mind.  Today is a very big day in the Stampin' Up world - retiring lists, Project Life, sneaky peaks, etc.  No wonder my mind was buzzing!

 

I'm also thinking about kitchens constantly.  Last Friday we received the news that Mark had won a prize in a monthly draw at work - A NEW KITCHEN!!!!  I'm not even joking.  We have a budget which we are really trying to adhere to (it's very hard!).  Emily has her ideas, Mark has his, Edward doesn't care, and I don't know what I think!  The catalogue is massive - so much choice.  We've been to the showroom, and I've been round to a friend's house to look at her new kitchen.  Again, my mind is buzzing.  It's so exciting, and scary.  Watch this space.

 

Anyway, thanks for dropping by,  Your comments are, as always, very much appreciated.

 

Take care

 

Michelle x

 

Card Swap Group - Post-it-Note Holders

Hope you are all enjoying this gorgeous sunny weekend.  It really lifts the spirits to see the sun out, as well as having all the windows and the patio door wide open.

 

So, today I'm getting round to sharing last month's card swap.  Jane tasked us to make Post-it-Note holders.  I made mine for Margaret, who makes the most gorgeous cards.  I decided to use Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla as I thought they would appeal to Margaret.

 

I masked off a panel and stamped the script stamp in Crumb Cake (can't remember which one).  My Stamp-a-ma-jig came in really handy for this.  I scored a couple of lines above and below the script.  Then using Papillon Potpourri, I stamped two butterflies and cut them out with the corresponding punch, as well as two in Crumb Cake cardstock.  I added a sentiment and then the butterflies, curling the wings a little bit to give some dimension.

 

I also made Margaret a matching card in exactly the same way.

This is the Post-it-Note holder that I received from Aileen.  It's really beautiful.  The photo doesn't really do it justice (not helped by the fact that I don't seem to be able to make it larger - silly Blogger!).

 

It's been really nice to have a calm, relaxed weekend.  The last couple of weeks have been crazy!  Edward had his practise expedition for DofE last weekend, and the weather couldn't have been more awful - rain, wind, hail!  Having said that, he had a really great time.  The real one is the middle of June, and I think we'll all be more that prepared for it.  This week has been the SATs tests at school which comes with its own stresses.

 

I'm on a bit of a countdown - 5 working days until half term!!

 

Have a great week.  See you soon.

 

Take care

 

Michelle x

Scrapbags Spring Retreat - Part 2

Hi All.  So I was meant to post this a couple of weeks ago but never quite got round to it, life kind of got in the way.

 

Here are the layouts that I completed at my retreat before Easter.  I didn't get as many done as you would have thought over three days, probably because I spent too much time chatting!  But I had a great time.

 

Most of these layouts feature Stampin' Up products.

 

And the next layout is my first attempt at Project Life.  I've started an album for Edward for when he's 18 (3 years to go - nothing like planning ahead!), and I wanted it to be different to the ones I made for Emily.  I'm really pleased how this turned out.  You can imagine how excited I am about Stampin' Up teaming up with Becky Higgins and bringing Project Life to us in the new catalogue!!!!!

 

Hopefully I'll be back soon, but you never know with me!  Must actually get some cards made because I haven't made any for ages :(

 

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend.

 

Take care

 

Michelle

Scrapbags Spring Retreat - Part 1

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending thee days at a scrapbooking retreat in a lovely hotel in Hertfordshire, organised by the lovely and amazing June.  The weekend was very relaxed, the company was great, as was the food - it was just fab!  June provided some beautiful layouts for us to complete as well as some fiendish quizzes for the more competitive of us!

 

I wanted to take a little Easter treat for all my fellow Scrapbags.  I was inspired by a video Lucy Tustian (a fellow SU demonstrator) made, and this is what I created.  All the products are Stampin' Up.

 

The grounds of the hotel are so pretty, and we were blessed with lovely weather, particularly on the Sunday.

It was a shame to have to leave on the Sunday afternoon.  I could have happily stayed for longer.  Tomorrow I will be showing you the layouts that I made, including my first Project Life layout,  Thanks for dropping by.  Have a lovely day.

Take care

Michelle x