A Fairy Bug Themed Card

Good morning, it's Susie here and we are getting ready for our schools finishing up tomorrow - the summer plans are being made and the excitement is high!

I've been helping a lot in school during the last month, and one of the many activities we did was a Bug Hunt in the local woods and that inspired me to make this card.

I started with two hexagons from the Zendoodle Borders & Bits Stamp Set, stamped in Wheat ink.  The ladybird, from Clare's Woodland Fairy set and the snail from Clare's Flower Fairy set, were stamped in black ink and coloured with my pencils.  The butterfly is from Clare's Garden Fairy set.

The bold stripy card was from one of Sarah's A Few of my Favourite Things kits and matted onto some red paper as a colourful contrast.  Just a little bit of Platinum Stickles completed my clean and simple (and easily mail-able!) card.

These cute insects, together with the other items in the sets, would be wonderful for a scrap layout of a woodland walk.......mmmmm, maybe I have my next project sorted!!

July Calendar page by Jaine

It's that time again, with Summer well and truly here, for school to finish. Well, almost anyway.

I keep hearing "School's out for summer" in my head!

Of course I'm a month ahead with my calendar as usual but it'll creep up before I know it. We're already making plans for trips, visits and holidays.

This time I've gone for a more scrapbooky (is that a word?) feel for July using some of the journaling cards and washi tape from the latest A Few Of My Favourite Things kit and layered them onto my background which I've painted and randomly stamped with a couple of my background stamps, Fireworks and Pebbles.  I've also used the 'Yay' from the Everyday Sayings stamp set.

I hope you're keeping up with us here.

What are you planning for summer?

Jaine x

Hello card

Hello there!

Its Ria here today!

In today's card, I used the mini stamps that I got from Sarah's kit previously. I specially love the small shapes that one can easily use to create patterns which I did here on the side of the card.

I stamped the shapes randomly to fill one area of the card base. I then added a stitched accent by using a die cut shape with only stitching lines.
You can also do a different variant of the mini stamping by using different colors of ink in white cardstock, that would also look great.

My 'Hello' sentiment is from one of Sarah's Snip n Stick embellishment sheet while the papers are a from random ones from Sarah's scrapbooking kits.

I added some die cut stars and sequins to add texture on my card.

And this is the full card..

Until next time!

XOXO

Happy Saturday!

Its Ria here today.

I love clean and simple cards. What makes me more happy is that even with minimal supplies, you can create simple yet will hopefully makes someone happy too to receive.

And here's my basic supply.. not in photo are random patterned papers from Sarah's kits.
Note that you can use whatever you have on hand.

I stamped the heart in two colors, alternatively stamping the two colors on white cardstock.
I want the stamped heart as my focal point so I chose brighter colors of ink than my paper colors.

For my background, I embossed them using my embossing folder while my patterned papers were die cut with square and rectangle shapes.

A closer look at my card today..

You can make use those small stamp shapes in your stamp sets to decorate a simple cut shape. It would also be great  to create your own background.

For now, I used stamping to highlight the heart stamp as my main card design.

And this is the full card

Until then!

Supplies used:

Sentiments stamp set
Ink pads
Embossing folder
Sarah Hurley patterned papers

A Bookmark for (Gran)Dad

Good morning, it’s Susie here and I’ve been having a bit of fun with my children creating a bookmark to give to my dad for Father’s Day.  

We decided that we liked Sid the Robot best for our bookmark and started by stamping him at the bottom of a piece of white card 6cm wide by 23.5cm long.

Another robot was stamped at the the other end of the strip so that they were facing different directions.  This means that they will both be upright when the bookmark is complete.

Euan and Louise love colouring and generally make a really good job, so I left them to it and got on with the rest of it.

We chose some double sided  patterned card from one of the A Few of My Favourite Things packs and cut it into a strip 7.5cm wide by 25cm long and rounded each corner. 

The centre was scored to make folding easier and I attached the magnets with double sided tape at each end of the patterned side.   The magnets are optional, but I like the idea of a bookmark that cannot fall out of the book! My magnets were recycled from extremely cheap and horrible bookmarks I bought ages ago, but you can buy magnetic strips or dots from craft stores.

When Euan and Louise had completed their colouring, Euan round the corners of the strip of robots. 

We also scored the centre to make folding easier (or thinner card can just be folded in half) and punched a small hole at 3cm on the score line.  If you would rather not have a ribbon tassle, you do not need to punch the hole.

I like a ribbon, or tassle to make my bookmark obvious when it's in my book, so we selected some co-ordinating 5mm ribbon and put it through the hole, securing it with tape on the wrong side of our robot strip.

We added glue to one half of our robot strip and stuck it to our coloured strip by lining up the folds of each strip and pressing the surfaces firmly together.  We then added glue to the other half and stuck securely.

As a finishing touch, we added some Silver and Stardust Stickles to our robots.

 My dad will love his magnetic bookmark, which has been created by both grandchildren and daughter with a lot of love and fun!

Additional Ideas:

You could add a polyshrink Sid the Robot charm to your ribbon like the charms I made for my Doodle Home Keyring.

A co-ordinating card, like Clare's would look great with it.

And I LOVE the idea of Jaine's Promise Cards!

Items Used:

Sid the Robot stamp set

Card from A Few of My Favourite Things

White card

Colouring pens / pencils

Glue

Stickles

Ribbon

Magnets

June Calendar page

We are racing through the months which is a little bit daunting but never the less I have to remind myself I am a month ahead with my calendar page.

Here we are at June already and June is my wedding anniversary month. As usual I've gone for the scrapbook layout style of documenting.

To create my page I've used some of my monthly kit club journaling cards which I'm so happy to say are coming back so check out the details of how to subscribe.

I hope you liked my calendar page.

Jaine x

Doodle Home Keyring Set

Hello everyone! It's Susie here and I have been trying something a little different: a keyring using Sarah's Doodle Home set and some polyshrink.

I gathered the supplies I'd need to make the Doodle Home charms, including the actual stamp set and a heat gun (not in the photo):

I stamped my chosen images (the tall house, cloud and tree) from the Doodle Home set onto the PolyShrink using StazOn Jet Black ink. (The StazOn ink is perfect for stamping onto the shiny, non-porous PolyShrink surface.) Each shape was then cut out carefully and turned face down onto some scrap card. The BACK of each stamped polyshrink shape was coloured with my Promarker. (Alcohol based markers like promarkers, copics, etc smudge the StazOn ink, hence colouring the back of the image.) You can skip this step if you'd rather have your charms black and white.

Punch a hole in each shape, so that you can attach a jump ring to each charm. Now you're ready for the magic! One at a time, put a shape on a heat proof surface, hold gently with something heatproof (like an embossing tool or pencil) and use your heat gun, or hairdryer, to shrink the PolyShrink. It will shrink and curl profusely and then flatten again. As soon as it has flattened, switch off your heatgun and place an acrylic block over your shape to ensure it is evenly flat. Leave a short time to cool before adding a jump ring. This is the size of the shrunken charm compared to the original stamp. Cool, huh?!

I added chain, split rings, my charms and beads onto the keyring swivel clasp, including an extra split ring for my actual key.   I am really pleased with the finished article and think that it might also look good as a handbag charm.  

The same Doodle Home set was used to create a background and topper for my matching New Home card.  These were matted onto card from one of Sarah's A Few of My Favourite Things sets and Platinum Stickles was added to parts of the shapes.  There was a strip of background left, which I made into a tag holder for my keyring.  

The finished set:

Background stamping fun

Happy Thursday!

Its Ria here to share a fun one-color background stamping.

First up, I stamped the 3 different sized flowers that is part of the Zen Doodle Nature stamp set. I used only one light color ink over white cardstock.

For the small open white spaces, I used the small heart and note stamps to fill the gaps. That will make the design more complete :)

In my card base, I added green strips in both sides to base the stamped design.

I then die cut small shaped dies to frame the two birds that I fussy cut from Sarah's A Few of my Favorite Things kit.

I also stamped the small flowers with light pink ink to complement the pink bird. These flowers will be used as my embellishments later in the final card.

I assembled the pieces and here's the details of the final card. I white embossed the birthday sentiment using vellum.

and the full card..

I hope you try the one color stamping, I had fun doing this card.

Until then!


Supplies used:
Zen Doodle Nature Stamp set
Charm Street Cuties Thinking of You stamp set
A Few of my Favorite Things papers
Ink pads and Dies 

Rainy Day Fun

Good morning, Susie here and I've had some fun creating a scrap page using photos from our Easter school hols.  We had an amazing time on the rare rainy day we had: splashing in the water fountains, geocaching, playing in the play area and generally enjoying ourselves!  

I started by choosing this 12x12 card from one of Sarah's previous All My Favourite Things Kits and looked through all my scraps, journal cards, stamps and bits 'n' bobs and chose these as a starting point:

I stamped my Charm Street Cuties Rainy Day directly to my bottom left card corner and again onto white card.  The white card cutie was coloured with promarkers, fussy cut and added to my base. 

My many photos were sized to 4cm or 8cm squares (roughly!) and trimmed, before laying out on my base.  (I just printed them onto normal paper.) I started with my favourite large photo and placed it in the centre and layered the other photos from that one, keeping each theme together: geocaching, play area and fountain.  

I had alot of fun adding numerous clouds to the layout.  Some clouds were stamped and fussy cut using the clouds from the Rainy Day set, the Doodle Home set and some felt clouds from a Mini Embellishments pack.  Some clouds and raindrops were also stamped directly to the page and photos:

 This cute banner checklist (from All My Favourite Things kit) was a perfect addition to the page and echoed the pink jacket of one of the girls.

To add a bit of interest to the clear space on the lower part of the layout, I used the pattern block from Clare Brown's Ronnie the Robot set and stamped it following the lower line of my photos.  I drew some letters for the title (attempting to copy my journal writing on the checklist) and had a bit of fun doodling on them.  The scalloped underline is from the Doodle Home set.  I finished the page with my favourite Stardust stickles on all of the raindrops, around some clouds and on some of the letters in my title.  And I have a lovely keepsake of a fantastically fun day!!

10 Minute Makes - Congratulations Card.

Hello, it's Carol here today and I am going to share a super quick 10 Minute Make card with you. You may have seen Sarah announce that the amazing "A Few Of My Favourite Things" Kits are coming back! *happy dance* So I thought I would celebrate by making a card using a really cute set of flower stamps from one of the kits.

To make this card you will need 

A C6 card blank, I used Kraft Card

A piece of white card cut down to 14.4cm x 10.1cm

Sentiment Stamps

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Pad

Enamel Dots, ribbon and adhesives.

Stamp lots of flowers on the blank piece of white card, leaving a gap at the top for the ribbon and sentiment.

Attach the ribbon onto the card, leaving enough at either end to tuck under the stamped card.  Pick a sentiment from the pack of Sentiments Stamps, I chose the "Congratulations" one, always a handy card to keep in your stash box.

Now for the fun bit, add some colour, or you could leave it monochrome, the choice is up to you. I used some enamel dots to add a pop of colour.

Thanks for popping by today, and I hope you are enjoying the "10 Minute Makes". Remember and pop by soon for some fabulous creations from my super talented teamies!

Have a great day, Carol xx

Birthday stamping and coloring

Happy Saturday!

It's Ria here today for a quick card as always.

I love making cards even with minimal craft supplies, one that you can create easily yet fun.

For my project, I used a combination of papers from Sarah and the Outline Alpha stamps.
I first stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment, then watercolor them by using gradation of orange and red color.

I used a die to make some scallop design at the sentiment. I again used a die to cut the green paper but I stamped the mini leaves on the background for some texture.

The stars are from Sarah's kit that I already have on my stash. I fussy cut them and layered the yellow and blue stars on top of each other.

For some texture, I also added a crochet ribbon along the strip and sequins along the patterned papers.

And a closer look of the details

And the full card

Supplies used:

Outline Alpha Stamps
A Few of my Favorite Things papers
Sequins and crochet ribbon

Ballerina Bar Work and Bunting

Good morning, it's Susie here this morning with the cute Ballet set from Clare Brown.  And, for the second time in a row, I've used pink, although I have sneaked my favourite turquoise into the ballerina's outfit and stamping!

The pink dotty card is from one of Sarah's A Few of My Favourite Things sets and provided the perfect background for my scene.  I stamped the ballerina onto some white card and a post it note, cut around the post it note ballerina's legs, skirt and hand and placed her on top of my card ballerina.  I carefully stamped the bar on top.

When the post it note mask was removed, it left my ballerina holding onto her bar!  

I also stamped my ballerina onto scraps of dotty and mint card and cut out her tutu from the pink card and the detail from the mint card and assembled her paper-pieced costume.  (At this stage, it might be easier to colour the skin of your ballerina, before sticking her outfit on, rather than leaving it until later as I did.) 

The outer edges of her tutu were coloured with a pink promarker, so that the white is not seen when I layer her outfit.  I curled her outfit with my scissors, added some glue and a small foam pad to the card ballerina and the stuck her paper-pieced tutu into position.  

The pink dotty card is so pretty that I decided, again, to cut around the top of my scene to expose more if the prettiness.

I also really love this journalling card from Sarah's Wonderful Day set and decided that, whilst the clouds didn't suit my scene, I could use the bunting, so carefully cut it out and curled the flags with my scissors and assembled it to my picture.

Just a bit of stamping, some Stardust Stickles and turquoise gems and my card was complete:0)

A Bright and Rainy Day Scene

Welcome and Happy Good Friday to you!  It's Susie here today and I have the ever so cute Charm Street Cuties Rainy Day to show you.

I love this bright fushia pink card (from one of the A Few of My Favourite Things Kits) and thought that it would provide a great contrast for the Rainy Day stamp.  (It also proves that I am not completely addicted to using turquoise, or various shades of it!!)

I used promarkers in Cool Grey 1, 2 and 3 to create the background for my girl, just with random wavy-ish lines and used a blender pen to blend the lightest grey into the white card.

I then stamped Rainy Day onto the background and onto a post-it note.

The post-it note mask was cut and placed over the card, so that I could stamp the cloud and make it look as if it is behind the girl.  The cloud was also stamped onto another post-it note to use THAT as a mask too.

The cloud was cut out enough to mask the cloud for layering another cloud behind it.

The cloud mask was removed so that some more clouds could be added to the scene and lots of rain drops were also added.

Then the colouring was added, using my promarkers.  I did consider keeping the whole image monochrome, but my love of colour won through and some pink was added to go with the card.

I then decided that I would risk cutting around the clouds, in order to show off more of the fushia card........and removed the top cloud too as I liked the overall shape better without it.  I added some Stardust Stickles to the clouds, rain and puddles and strengthened the shading of the coat and wellies......and was finally happy with the result!  Loving this sentiment from the Rainy Day set too.

Have a wonderfully bright and, hopefully, not too rainy an Easter, folks.