9 weeks

I haven't had much free time lately - and no time to post to the blog. I've been getting work done on the house and Marley is taking up a lot of my time too - he's now 9 weeks old. It's amazing how much older he looks - he's changed so much in a fortnight and now looks like a small dog rather than a puppy! He loves his mini squeaky football and lying in the shade. We've had lots of sun for the last week or so, which is the only real summer we've had this year; I didn't think we were going to have any summer at all this year, to be honest, as it has been raining almost non-stop for what seems like months. It's so warm today - probably the warmest day this year.

Some craft/Stampin' Up! posts to follow soon...

Posing

Marley posing for the camera this afternoon...

Star book

I haven't had time to do anything even remotely craft-related since Marley appeared on the scene... in fact, I haven't had time to do anything at all! The pup's a handful! Last night was the first time I'd managed to do anything vaguely creative in well over a week. We each made a "star book" at my local crop yesterday evening. The books are a bit like accordian books, really, but you can tie the ribbon to hold it open to form a star shape. I've still to fill the book with photos and journalling. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out - I hadn't made one before. I think I'll use it for photos of Marley.

The paper I've used for the front cover is part of the Making Memories "Chelsea's Place" range. The ribbon is by Creative Impressions.

Marley

This is Marley... he's a springer spaniel and he'll be seven weeks old next Tuesday. We picked him up from the Perthshire breeder yesterday. He has a lovely nature... and keeps falling asleep on me!

One of his brothers, Broxie (below left), has a new home with my brother (not too far away), which is great.

Wedding

Just a quick post, I'm afraid...

A wedding card made for a friend as a commission of sorts... the cake stamp is an old one by Denami Design, coloured with SU watercolour wonder crayons and covered in Stickles Stardust glitter. The "love" stamp is from the Wonderful Words stamp set by Stampin' Up! (embossed in silver).

Will our rancid weather ever end? Where's our summer?!

Origami

A photo of an "explosion card" made yesterday... I've seen this type of card loads of times in various guises, but I don't recall seeing one of this size before - it's a neat 4" square card. I've made bigger cards of this type in the past and a couple of scrapbook style "explosion books" using a similar concept. It folds flat to fit in an envelope.

I saw this card template on Dawn's Stamping Thoughts blog yesterday and it inspired me to make one using the dimensions and instructions given on her blog... if you click here you can watch Dawn's video, which contains instructions on how to make this card if you haven't made one before. It is not as difficult as it looks, although it does take a bit of time to do the folding and all the paper trimming required to fit the various sections of the card. Dawn is an American Stampin' Up! demonstrator and she has an entire blog full of stamping-related videos... it is definitely worth a look if you haven't visited it before. She normally posts a video more-or-less daily.

My card was made using a random selection of scrap paper from the pile of rubbish on my desk... stuff I'd been trying to offload for months. The fact that the colours are quite pleasant was a mere coincidence - it wasn't particularly pre-planned! I really like the end product, though. I've used a couple of strips of Bazzill scalloped cardstock. The stamps are by Hero Arts. I love all the owl stamps around at the moment. The little owl on this card was painted using Stampin' Up! ink pads (Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip mixed with water for a variety of tones) and is covered with Stickles Stardust glitter glue.


I've made another card using the same template and I'll post that later.

Christmas in July...

Well... here they are! My first two Christmas cards for 2008. I'm reasonably sure this is the first time I've made Christmas cards in July... I normally start making them in August and then make some sporadically each month through to the end of November.

These cards are identical except for the horizontal strip of patterned paper (I've used the same set of paper, but different strips) and the size of the knot. The card at the front has a much smaller, neater knot than the one at the rear - I don't have a preference as to which one looks better. I quite like both of them. The base card is made from half an A4 sheet of Stampin' Up!'s Kraft card - my favourite.

I've used Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds glitter with a glue pen rather than Stickles... Stickles is quicker and easier to apply, I suppose, but the effect just isn't the same. Dazzling Diamonds is so much nicer and has much more sparkle.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):-

- stamps: Polka Dot background; Perfect Presents

- ink: Handsome Hunter; White Stazon

- cardstock: Kraft; Handsome Hunter; Whisper White; "Dashing" designer series patterned paper

- other: White taffeta ribbon; Dazzling Diamonds glitter; Zig glue pen (chisel tip - for the glitter)

Marina Drive

Some Heidi Grace papers from the Marina Drive range received from QVC this morning... A bargain from QVC "Last Clicks". A couple of the papers are double-sided, a couple are flocked (note to Helen: pre-flocked!!) and there's a lovely shimmery embossed paper. In addition, there's a large sheet (12 x 12) of chipboard shapes, a sheet of translucent plastic embellishment shapes, two packets of flocked/shimmery flowers with matching brads and a double sheet pack of alphabet and number chipboard die-cuts... all for about £10ish plus (expensive) postage of about £3.45. Even with the postage, it's a bargain!

Rotten weather here again today: yet more rain. Everywhere is flooded. So much for summer!

Super-quick!

A quick card used as a sample for a make and take project at my local scrapbook crop this week. The project had to be something quick and easy, as many of the scrappers had never stamped before and I didn't want to put them off with something really time-consuming! I've used the Watercolour Joy wheel with So Saffron ink for the background of the card (and the flap at the back of the envelope - just visible in the photo), with a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock across the front of the card. The flower stamp is from the All Natural stamp set and was coloured with a Pumpkin Pie watercolour Wonder crayon, trimmed and mounted with 3D foam pad. The word stamp from the Wonderful Words"stamp set was stamped with Black Stazon ink. A ridiculously easy card to make...

Minis

A couple of mini scrapbooks. The pale blue, white and black book (photos above and immediately below) is made from Noteworthy papers by Making Memories. I made it at a Scrap-a-ganza class in Holland. The structure of the book is really easy to make, but not something I'd thought of before, to be honest... it's made using three sheets of 12 x 12 inch papers. My book isn't finished, by any means; it needs more embellishments, photos (obviously) and some tags in the "gaps" left in the sides. I love the quality of these Making Memories papers and the colours are great.

The pink, pale blue and pastel green book (photos below) is a book I demonstrated to three crafters (my mum and two aunts!) on Wednesday evening... and they each made one. They were really pleased that it was ridiculously easy (and inexpensive) to make a small scrapbook. They managed to make it without any difficulty at all and this is the first scrapbook of any kind they've ever worked on. The papers and ribbons used for this one are "Blue Hill" by Crate. Again, it's nowhere near complete, but I hope to finish it (and the other one!) shortly.