I Just Love You

Morning all, I have actually managed to sneak downstairs undetected by my little (and not so little..) ones this morning so I am enjoying an undisturbed cup of coffee while writing this post. I know this peace and quiet won't last so I am making the most of it.

I am a big fan of the word CASE, in the crafting community it means Copy and Share Everything and I always get a big thrill if someone asks if they can CASE my cards. I am more than happy for anyone to CASE anything of mine they see on my blog, Facebook or Instagram, I'd like it if they mentioned that they'd been inspired by my card but it is not essential. Where I can I will also link back to the original persons work as I feel they deserve the recognition of having inspired someone to create. With that in mind today's card has been CASEd from a card that Jacque Williams created for a colour challenge.

With Valentines Day round the corner I wanted to make a card for Craig that wasn't too girly so when I saw this one on Pinterest I just had to give it a go. I just love this colour combination for masculine cards so I might be making some more using these two colours. I didn't have all of the materials that Jacque used on her card but what I did have was some white glitter washi, some white organza ribbon and my Night of Navy Stampin' Blend. Did you know you could use your blends to colour in washi tape, rhinestones and ribbon? Now you can get your favourite embellishments to coordinate without having to own one in every colour!

One of the things I love about CASEing other peoples cards is that often you learn something along the way, while I knew about colouring washi tape with Stampin' Blends, I didn't know about 'kissing' stamps together. While admiring Jacques card I was wondering how she had produced the small Night of Navy heart, was it a stamp I didn't recognise, had she used white craft ink? I couldn't tell until I read her blog post and realised it was a simple technique that I hadn't heard of before. For the heart on this card you take the small heart in the stamp set, ink it up with Night of Navy ink and then lightly 'kiss' this stamp with the large floral heart. This then picks up some of the floral pattern so that when you stamp it onto card you get a gorgeous patterned heart.

The base card in Night of Navy was not folded into equal halves, this is so that when the right hand side of the inner card has been embossed it can be seen when you close the card. I always forget about my embossing folders, I buy them because I think they achieve lovely results but then they are hidden in my cupboard and I forget about them. I must make more of an effort to use them! Another great reason for CASEing cards, it reminds you of forgotten products.

The smaller background hearts were stamped onto Whisper White card and while you can get matching dies to go with this stamp set, I haven't purchased these (yet!), so I used my trusty paper snips to fussy cut my two hearts which were then popped on using dimensionals. I finished off the outside by adding the embellishments I had coloured and some Lemon Lime Twist self adhesive sequins. I really hope Stampin' Up! bring out more self adhesive sequins, these are so much easier to use!

 Well my coffee is finished and I can hear my little monsters thumping about upstairs which means my short spell of peace and quiet it about to vanish, I hope you like the finished card, please feel free to CASE this or any of my other cards and I'd love to see what you come up with. All of the supplies used to make today's card are shown below and all links will take you directly to my online shop. Happy crafting.

Supplies:

Heart Happiness Photopolymer Stamp Set

[145769]

£15.00

Petal Palette Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[145788]

£32.00

Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock

[106577]

£7.25

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

£8.25

Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad

[126970]

£6.00

Lemon Lime Twist Classic Stampin' Pad

[144086]

£6.00

Night Of Navy Dark Stampin' Blends Marker

[144039]

£4.00

Myths & Magic Specialty Washi Tape

[145602]

£5.50

Whisper White 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Organza Ribbon

[145590]

£5.50

Tutti-Frutti Adhesive-Backed Sequins

[145609]

£6.25

Seaside Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

[141481]

£7.75

Paper Snips Scissors

[103579]

£9.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

£3.75

Fast Fuse Adhesive

[129026]

£9.00

Sunday Retirement Showcase - Happy Ribbon

Morning all, well it's Sunday again already, time seems to be going so quickly at the moment. My boys are growing up too fast, the weeks are flying by, getting closer and closer to when I have to go back to work! Hmmmm not a happy thought! It is also getting closer to the 31st May which means you don't have long left to get those items on the retirement list before they are gone for good. A happier point is that it's getting closer and closer to when the new catalogue comes out, I am loving some of the new items and already have a wish list as long as my arm. If you would like a copy of the catalogue just drop me and email and I will get one in the post to you when they become available.

So as part of my mega tidy up in my craft space I bought a ribbon box as I have lots of reels and I hardly ever use them because I just can't see them. So now most (I hadn't realised how many I had, I need another box!!) of my ribbons are in my box and I can see all of them poking out through the holes at the end. The problem being I could now see how pretty they were but still had no idea what to do with them. So once again I opened Pinterest to see what I could find. I found a lovely card by Lisa of I'm in Haven which had Happy down the side of the card with ribbons going across the card the same colour as the letters and then birthday stamped at the bottom. Unfortunately I couldn't find the post that the photo was from which is why I haven't linked directly to that post. Here is my card recreated with retired Stampin' Up! supplies.

I'm going to give this card to my brother in law but it could easily be changed to be more feminine. I don't feel it's as good as Lisa's but I'm happy with the result and I will be looking for more ways to use up my stacks of retired ribbons so that I can buy some of the ones in the new catalogue.

Thank you for stopping by to read my blog, I'll be back on Tuesday with another card to show you.

Supplies:

WWYS - Going Global

Morning all, I hope you're having a good week? It seems like a bit of a long one to me but it's not been too bad. I had better warn you now this is a bit of a photo heavy post, sorry! As I said on Tuesday I do love a good challenge blog and I have stumbled across a new one. It's called What will you stamp? and the idea is that each week a different Stampin' Up! set is chosen and the challenge is to use that stamp set. I think this is a great idea as I have so many stamp sets that I bought because I really liked them and then have either used them once or not at all. This weeks challenge is to use the retiring set Going Global, this is actually one of my favourite sets and I'm so sad to see it leaving. I think it is great for those hard to make masculine cards, so if you like it make sure you grab it quickly!

There are so many possibilities with this set and I really love the 'You are my greatest adventure' sentiment and think it goes really well with the compass. Here is what I came up with:

I often find that when I finish a card I either love it or think it's a bit rubbish, this was one of the rare occasions where I really loved the finished result! The strip of marble effect paper down the middle is just gorgeous and the wink of stella on the compass just finishes it off nicely. It's not often that I brag about one of my own cards but I really do love this one.  

The marble effect paper was made using shaving foam and re-inkers. I have to admit I bought the re-inkers because I thought I should. Most of my pads have never needed re-inking as they last so well hence why I have been looking for other things I can do with them. This is why I tried out the floating re-inker technique on a previous post (click here to see it) and why I have tried out the shaving foam technique on this card. Yet another technique that I can't believe I haven't done before.

As you can see from the above photo it is so so easy! First you spread shaving foam (must be foam not gel) onto a flat surface, I used a plate, and spread it out until it's roughly flat. Then add a few drops of your chosen re-inkers and swirl together with something thin, I would suggest the thin end of a paintbrush. Don't swirl them too much otherwise you end up just mixing the colours together. Place your card stock in the foam and gently pat down over the entire surface. Using tweezers take the card out of the foam and wipe the shaving foam off. I would suggest leaving it for a couple of mins first so the ink doesn't smudge. Then leave to dry and you end up with a gorgeous marble effect!

I hope you like my card as much as I do and thank you for stopping by to read my blog. If you wanted any of the supplies to make this card then please use the links below to go straight through to my online shop.

Supplies: