Coral Cocktail

A card made for a friend's birthday today. The backing card was created from half a sheet of Stampin' Up! Cameo Coral cardstock, with Ruby Red comprising the panel behind the stamped piece and Pumpkin Pie comprising the scalloped layer. For a change, I wanted to try the Cheers to You cocktail stamp set with Earth Elements shades (as opposed to the more obvious Bold Brights which I normally use with that set). The patterned paper is from the SU set of Fall Flowers designer papers.

The "Celebrate" stamp from the Wonderful Words stamp set was stamped with Ruby Red ink to match the cardstock panel and the cocktail image was stamped with Black Stazon on Whisper White cardstock and watercoloured with Earth Elements watercolour wonder crayons. The ribbon is SU moss gingham.

Still no joy with the door company... they've completely wrecked the plasterwork and brickwork in my hall and they haven't responded to our three page letter detailing the various faults and damage etc. We've 'phoned numerous times and they've ignored most of our calls; they tried to call us once this afternoon in response to our messages and we missed the call... and they haven't called back, despite that we fact that we've since left a few more messages for them.

Thank You Tree

This is a Thank You card made very quickly on Friday night. I coloured the tree with Stampin' Up! Gable Green, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip markers and stamped it on Whisper White cardstock. The brown mount behind the stamped piece has been distressed with the SU tool. I've tied SU linen thread through the button; I really like the natural look of the thread and I seem to use it all the time nowadays.

The saga continues. Aside from the problems with the doors... we bought a new outside light (a stainless steel and glass modern coach lamp affair) yesterday. My brother was installing it for us, but the glass slipped... and smashed. It wasn't his fault, it was just one of those things. £50 down the drain, though - and we'd had it in our possession less than an hour! We had to buy a second light (an entirely different type of light - which actually looks nicer than the first one), which is now in situ. Everything I'm involved in at the moment seems to be full of problems! I'll write to the manufacturer and see whether they can provide a replacement glass cylinder... if so, we can use the light at the back door. Meantime, the light is packed in its box and it's off to the graveyard in the attic...

No Time (again)!

Another busy week... time has disappeared again.

I (finally) managed to make a couple of cards last night. This one is a birthday card for a friend who is a huge fan of orange and green... the image was coloured using Stampin' Up! Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie watercolour wonder crayons (with some Ruby Red and Garden Green) and an aqua painter. The "Celebrate" stamp is by Stampin' Up! and the flower stamp is by Hero Arts. There are self-adhesive gems in the centres of the flowers. The flower image was stamped on SU Confetti White cardstock (which is better for watercolouring with an aqua painter... it holds water better than Whisper White cardstock and the aqua painters can produce a fair bit of water!) and the panel to to the rear of the stamped image is Pumpkin Pie cardstock.

We've had a couple of new doors installed this week and the company has made a complete toss of it and needs to come back and replace them... more mess/grief!

No Time!

I'm not sure where the week has gone... it was one of those weeks. No free time. The weekend has disappeared equally as quickly. I went to see Mamma Mia at the Clydeside Auditorium (SECC) with my mum and two aunts yesterday... it was a birthday present for my mum. The show was brilliant and not at all what I expected. It was quite clever how they managed to weave so many ABBA songs through the story.

I spent much of today fighting with the Tom Tom GPS software and their web-site trying to download a map of New England (for our next trip)... what a waste of time. The software they told me to use was "too new" and I had to uninstall it and use the old software first... you'd think they could build in a feature to alert you to this to eliminate the crystal ball factor? Anyway... it took me several hours, but I managed it in the end.

I've included photos of a couple of cards I've made this weekend... The card above uses three of the stamps from the Stampin' Up! Cheers to You stamp set (which is one of my favourite sets), some ribbon scraps, a scrap of patterned paper and SU Only Orange and Pixie Pink cardstock. The other card (below) says "Leanne" in large letters. The colours and style were "by request" for a 19 year old's birthday card. I've used Stardust Stickles glitter glue in each of the holes and it's much more glittery in the flesh. The letters were cut using the Quickutz Revolution Spotlight cookie cutter alphabet dies.

Mini Book

A mini book made from two blank white greeting cards tied together with some Basic Grey "Infuse" fibres. I've used K & Co "Roam" papers (from a 6" x 6" pad which I must have picked up in America... as I don't recall buying it!), various Hero Arts stamps and several chalk inks (including the Forest "Queue" by Colorbox). The photo above shows the front cover. I intend to insert photos and journalling, although I haven't had time.

Pages 1 and 2; pages 3 and 4 (centre pages); and pages 5 and 6...

... plus the rear cover.

Black(bird) Magic?

I'm not sure how this bird got into our kitchen nor when it came in... perhaps it can walk through walls? To be fair, the bathroom window was open a tiny sliver (about 2 inches) for a short time, but that seems very hard to believe (but easier to believe, perhaps, than a blackbird with magical powers which can walk through walls).

I thought I heard a bang in the kitchen earlier... we went downstairs and a blackbird (I think that's what it was) was throwing itself at the window trying to get out. It defies belief, really. I've never seen anything like it. The poor thing must have injured itself as it kept throwing itself head first at the glass, which made me feel terrible. We opened the window and it eventually worked it out and flew out, although it spent quite some time sitting up at the top of our units staring at us first of all. I managed to take a quick photo, but it's a bit blurred. We now need to fumigate the kitchen, of course, as who knows what germs it has left behind. It's funny as we were about to start chucking stuff out anyway, as we signed a deal yesterday afternoon to have our (tragic) kitchen re-done. Perhaps it was a special motivational bird sent by the kitchen company?

I'm glad I have a photo (blurred or otherwise) or I'd start to wonder whether I'm delusional...

Unbelievable.

Birthday Cheer

I haven't had a free minute all week, hence the distinct lack of posts... I'm completely behind on everything.

There are several birthdays during April which I need to make cards for - this is the first one. I used Stampin' Up! markers to colour the flower stamp (from the Heartfelt Thanks Level 3 hostess set); there's a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers at the moment about the "thumping" technique (click here to view it) and I suppose that's what I've used here... albeit I didn't know it had a formal name! I coloured the flower heads with the mustard shade first of all and then added some chocolate to give more dimension.

I used the distressing wheel on the SU cutter tool to "rough up" the edges of the Chocolate Chip panel. I inked the edges of the white panel with some mustard ink.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):-

- stamps: Heartfelt Thanks; Birthday Cheer & Wishes

- cardstock: Sage Shadow; Chocolate Chip; Whisper White

- patterned paper: Brocade Background

- markers: More Mustard; Sage Shadow; Chocolate Chip

- ink: Chocolate Chip

- other: Earth Elements brads; More Mustard Ribbon; Hodge Podge Hardware metal spiral

By Special Request...

In response to a couple of requests, here are a few more photos from The Eagles gig at the 02 in London. These photos aren't great; I didn't have my tripod with me and it was difficult to hold the camera still enough to deal with the light properly. I'm afraid the best photos are the few I've already posted. Full points to anyone who guesses the song from the backdrop of the first photo below...

Number Three...

This is the third of the three cards rolled with the Watercolour Joy wheel and Pumpkin Pie ink yesterday evening... as you can see, I've distressed the edges with brown ink (I used one of the Tim Holtz distress inks and Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip ink, but you could use any brown ink) and a sponge dauber. It gives a completely different effect.

The ric rac is a piece of die cut card (made by Bazzill) sponged with ink. The ribbon is by May Arts. The ribbon is by May Arts.

Lastly, here's a small card made with the same background wheel, one of the Whisper White Love notes, the scallop punch, 1 1/8" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch and one of the stamps from the Sending Happy Thoughts Simply Sent kit. The orange ribbon is a scrap I picked up in America. The cardstock colours are Old Olive and So Saffron, with Pumpkin Pie ink.