Hardwood Rose Garden

Hello! 

Happy happy Friday folks! So glad its Friday! Looking forward to a break from kids now as its the Easter holidays! I'm a little sad my time working front desk in Student Services has come to an end, its been very different and challenging but I've genuinely enjoyed it! I'll miss all the lovely ladies who work there too! 

Now, I've got card club this weekend, we're using Mosaic Madness as this month's set which is just beautiful! Also some manic sewing to get a project finished - I'll share it once its finished and gifted! 

 I've just got time to share with you the therapeutic crafting I did last night - it was a bit of a rubbishy day but I am so thankful to be able to come home, sit in my little sanctuary and just craft away the worries of the day! Today's card is for both The Paper Players and Freshly Made Sketches challenges!

I loved the choice with the paper players challenge this week. I chose to use the 3 boxes down the left hand side - Birthday, Yellow and Paper Piercing. 

Such a cute sketch and thought it'd work well with the vision I had for the Paper Players challenge too! I love it when things just work out like that!

Stamp Set: Remembering Your Birthday, Hardwood

Ink: Versamark, Baked Brown Sugar, Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride, Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush, Gumball Green, Vellum, Gold Foil

Punch: Petite Petals, Itty Bitty

Big Shot: Little Leaves Sizzlit, Spiral Flower

Other: Fringe Scissors, Essentials Piercing Pack, Gold Embossing Powder

Embellishments: Pearls

I realise there's a lot going on here but I kind of think everything works! In all honesty I got some new toys - Hardwood, spiral flower, fringe scissors....I just HAD to play! 

I thought the vellum would be nice as the over layer as I didn't want the top layer to be heavy - the hardwood and flowers were the real stars of the show. When I stamped and embossed the sentiment in gold it looked brilliant but a little lost on the size of vellum so I went back in with the versamark pen (unfortunately SU no longer sells it but I still have mine kicking around) which I used to hand draw in some cute little hearts! 

I thought I'd add just little pops of yellow - the crushed curry is a really powerful colour so just a little still has a big impact! 

The rose is so pretty, isn't it? I sponged crushed curry on the inside edge and strawberry slush on the outside edge to make the flower look more realistic! the centre is a rolled up strip of the fringe strip. after the flower was rolled up and glued I went back in and used some tweezers to fold back the petals. I thought the addition of gold leaves with green was a nice touch to marry the gold sentiment and flowers together. 

I hope you enjoy this. It definitely made me feel better! 

Happy Stampin',

All Gold

Hey there! 

Wow Tuesday already?! I spent yesterday making cards with my card club ladies - a nice chilled out time! And I spent the afternoon using My Digital Studio to do some digital scrapbooking of our holiday to Scotland last summer! Its super easy and fun. If you haven't tried out MDS yet, you can download the program for a free 30 day trial and if you decide you like it you can purchase the program for £13.95! A fantastic deal for all you get! Try it now here.

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you might remember I was inundated with a number of 50th wedding anniversary cards. Seven of which were commissions from friends and family for the same couple so they all needed to be different...if you missed them you can catch up on one, two, three, four, five, six and seven. 

Brenda was so impressed by them all she asked me to make a few for her friends who were also celebrating their 50th anniversary, most of which were very similar to ones I'd already made for her own. But recently she's asked for another, seeing as its been a while and I've had some time I thought I'd make up a new design. I thought I'd show you my latest creation.

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Gold Foil

DSP: Gold Foil Vellum

Big Shot: Typeset Alphabet

Embellishments: Gold Baker's Twine, Pearls, Tea Lace Doily

I just HAD to use the gold foil vellum. Isn't it pretty? I carefully added glue dots under the gold foil hearts. I think they look really pretty over the softened crumb cake card base. 

I really wanted to add a little bit of doily - some gold baker's twine and gold 50 just seemed the perfect little combo for the focal point. To finish it off I just added a few sprinkled pearls. 

I just couldn't work a sentiment into the card - thought it'd just totally throw off the aesthetics. Besides, I thought the 50 was enough. I did stamp a Happy Anniversary sentiment inside the card using an old retired set, can't remember the name off the top of my head.

Happy Stampin',

All Stitched Up!

Hi there! 

I have been having such a lovely weekend! I had a lovely time at Card Club last night with my ladies (had a few new ones too which is always very exciting!!) This morning was quite chilled out, did a little crafting followed by brunch with my darling. We had waffles, blueberries (for me), maple syrup, bacon and eggs (for him) plus oj of course - it was a true feast! Yum yum! Next was a catch up with an old friend from university. It was so great to see Rachel again, hopefully now we'll stay in touch a bit more! 

This afternoon I caught up on a bit of Winter Olympics - watched the opening ceremony (I like all the random facts that the commentator comes out with)! What I love about the Winter Olympics is that it just seems a bit more "normal" - you get a few crazies and amusing people taking part with just makes it that more enjoyable! Here's a few of my highlights from the opening ceremony 

- the Pakistani who learnt to ski on a pair of wooden skis made by his uncle

- a Jamaican bobsleigh team (always going to get a smile!)

- world famous solo violinist Vanessa May competing for Thailand in the Alpine Skiing 

- Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe of Mexico - competing in the Alpine Skiing in a mariachi ski outfit!!!

-and finally some pretty interesting country outfits, the top three that got my attention have to be the Russians (a wierd cross between Narnia and Santa outfits!?!), USA (The sweatshirts were a wierd cross between cute patchwork and a bad Christmas jumper), but first place for wierd totally goes to the Germans (I can only describe their outfits as something a unicorn has vomited rainbows over). 

I shall try not to bore you too much in the coming weeks with olympics news - my favourites are figure skating and curling. A new interesting one is totally the slug style snow boarding - pretty amazing the height and turns they get in their jumps!! Are you watching any Olympics? What's your favourite?

Anyway, on to to the card I've got for you, its a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week. 

Stamp Set: You're Lovely, Fabulous Phrases

Ink: Versamark

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Gold Foil, Gold Foil Vellum, Vellum

Accessories: Pearls, Linen Thread

Other: Gold Embossing Powder, Essentials Pierce Pack, Needle

This is one of those, morning waking ideas. I've been wanting to use the pierce pack for hand sewing on a card for ages and this idea just came to me one morning. 

I was so excited to see how well the cross stitching turned out! Isn't it cute?! I thought the tone on tone linen thread and crumb cake needed something else with a similar tone. I wasn't sure a bright colour would have worked, but I still wanted something with a little "wow" factor so opted for the gorgeous gold foil vellum, gold embossing and gold foil cardstock! I have really come round to the gold look which is just SO in fashion at the moment!

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Happy Stampin',