Owl Punch Surprise....

 I am battling a Bank Holiday Migraine today (in capitals to emphasize my irritation at this happening). So please excuse me if my blogging makes little sense ;0)  I've been resting all day and my brain is going stir crazy. Luckily I've had our family dog (star of many a scrapbook LO featured on these pages) for company all day. We've been snoozing away the day together.

I looked through my archive photos today to find some cards I havent previously featured on my blog. This card was inspired by many different owl punch cards I've seen out there in blogland. I created it with a view to teaching this in this months classes. However, it got replaced by my May infatuation with Natures Walk. I love the 3d pop out effect with this card and the Woodland Walk woodgrain papers. I also enjoyed the way the card tells a story (the way the owls are peeking out on the front cover then flying out from the tree inside the card).   If you'd like any further info on Stampin' Up! or their products, please get in touch: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. 

I'm off to attempt to schedule some posts for the week. Wish me luck. Not sure my brain will be able to handle it.....

Another class make

Here is another of our card class makes for this month. This was inspired by a beautiful Strength and Hope card over on Teneale Williams' blog (a very talented Australian Demo). I love this stamp set not only for its beautiful images, but also for the charity it supports. Stampin' Up! donate £1 from each set sold to a Breast Cancer Research charity. For more info click here.  I adapted the original card for my class. I just loved the colour combo of Elegant Eggplant and Crumb Cake and the sponge daubered Crumb Cake edges. And I love using the script stamp as a simple but effective tone on tone background. And of course I never need an excuse to use my gorgeous Scallop Trim Border. You can't see from the photo but I stamped the butterfly onto the Vanilla card and then again onto a vanilla scrap. I then cut the second butterfly out and dimensional-ed the image over the top. This way you have a sneaky cheats way of not having to cut the fine detail of the butterflys feelers.

Uses:
Cardstock: Very Vanilla,  Elegant Eggplant and Crumb Cake.
Stampset: Strength and Hope
Punch: Scallop Trim Border
Embellishments: Basic Pearls

Any questions or to order any Stampin' Up! supplies, please get in touch: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy crafting ;0)
-XX-

Card class

Here is another Lisa Young inspired creation that I will be teaching in this months card classes. This is inspired by the Nature Walk stamp set and Botanical Gazette Designer Series Paper (this DSP has really grown on me since the Mini was launched last month). I've even managed to utilise my favourite new products- Four Frames and  the Decorative Label Punch too.  This is such a simple but effective card which I have left intentionally blank so that it can be stamped with a sentiment at a later date. The beauty of leaving the card free of words is that it could work for a multitude of occassions ;0)

Uses:
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Baja Breeze and Night of Navy
DSP: Botanical Gazette & Newsprint
Stamps: Nature Walk and Four Frames
Ink: Night of Navy
Punches: Decorative Label
Other: Linen Thread & Dimensionals

Any questions about this project or Stampin' Up! please get in touch: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk  or 609249.

-XX-

4x6 Photo Love- Month 3

You might just pick up on a theme with my weekend scrapbooking makes. I must've been feeling hungry when I did these LOs *laugh*  And it wasn't until I came to put them all away that I realised I'd only scrapped about cake. Oh well, cake is one of my favourite things, so why not....

 

The first is a double LO for my sisters 21st birthday. I baked her this birthday cake (which I have previously posted on my blog). But I what I failed to reveal in my earlier post was that I had coloured all the layers in various bright shades of colouring. It would have been a surprise when she cut the cake had she not seen me baking the green layer and wondered what was going on with the mouldy cake ;0) For these two LOs I decided to go through my brightest stash and try and keep the colours as close to the cake layers as possible. I also set myself the challenge  to use up paper scraps and some retired Stampin' Up! stash too. So nothing to report product wise (except for those gorgeous Bright Buttons) but i had fun creating the LOs at our monthly Wight Craft Circle crop all the same. Upon a second look I've just realised that I did sneak in a little bit of stamping on the first LO. I managed to colour a couple of little cake stamped images using Crazy for Cupcakes and the new level one hostess set, A Slice of Life. Can you spot them? ;0)

 This next LO I created one evening last week. This features my others sisters birthday cakes. Mum baked her the most delicious tray of cupcakes (all topped with various delights from coconut to chocolate to fudge pieces!!). I've wanted to have a go at creating those paper rosettes for a while and was made up with the result. Again no new product to share (except again for those gorgeous Brights Buttons and a sneaky bit of Pear Pizzazz Poly Ribbon) but just wanted to post my creation ;0)

And lastly here is my Week 18 page for my weekly highlights journal. This again focuses on Sophie's 21st. This time I rolled out a stamp set I havent used in ages- Crazy for Cupcakes. I coloured the images using my Stampin' Writes and tried to match them to the cake layers.

Happy crafting ;0)

-X-

Another scrapbooking preview

Here is another of the scrapbooking LOs I have designed for this Thursdays scrapbooking evening. Again it uses the Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper as its focus. I have chosen two apple blossom photos from my Mums garden to compliment the papers. I based the layout on my previous page which was inspired by the Sunny Garden DSP. I adapted the LO to use the Just Perfect Alphabet and small circle punch as well as sneaking in my favourite scallop trim border punch too. I also found the Very Vanilla 5/8" Satin Ribbon perfect for the little butterfly embellishments (created using my Beautiful Wings Big  Shot Embosslit Die). I also loved creating my own little DSP button with a tiny scrap of the Springtime Vintage, my Itty Bitty flower punch and matching shaped clear button. It doesn't stand out too well in the photo. But I created the button to form the centre of the big butterfly and looks lovely on the real page.

 

Any Stampin' Up! questions, or to find out about this months scrapbooking class, just drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy crafting ;0)
-XX-

Sneak peak

So today I thought I would share a sneak peak of one of the layouts I will be demo-ing at this month's Stampin' Up! scrapbooking night. This was inspired by a beautiful Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper layout I saw over on the talented Carolyn's blog. I took some gorgeous photos of the spring blossom in my Mum's garden a few weeks ago and thought these papers would be perfect for floral themed layouts.

If you would like to come along I still have a couple of spaces left. The evening costs £8.50 to include papers and embellishments to create two 12x12 LOs. All you will need to bring is photos of your choosing (or you can create the LOs and add photos at home) and a basic toolkit (to include your glue of choice, scissors or trimmer). Please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249 to book your place.

Happy crafting (and a very happy Hump Day! I love getting half way through the working week ;0)

-XX-

Journal Week 17

Here is my 17th (!!!! Where is this year flying off to???)  page for my week by week journal. I felt inspired by the Stampin' Up! French Filigree background stamp to create this black and white page.  I have been using my heat tool a lot to emboss recently and decided to give it a go on one of my pages. The 4 stamped images didn't quite meet in the middle, hence the positioning of my flower and summary block.

I know I have kept my monthly summaries uniform (I printed them all onto Crumb Cake in January).  But with the black and white theme for this page I decided to hand write this months:

In April I have been:

Listening to: Till The World Ends- Britney (repeatedly and LOUD)

Watching: The Cube & Red Riding Hood

Reading: Freya North's Chances

Visiting: My lovely new craft room

Since completing this page I have filled in the black and white blocks around the edge with journalling (in the contrasting colour).

Happy crafting ;0)

-XX-

Springtime Vintage Birthday

This is inspired by a card I saw over on Lisa Young's blog. I love how she created this basket by weaving 1/2 inch wide lengths of Crumb Cake cardstock and then running it through the Big Shot with the Top Note die.

For the flowers i have cut different sized and coloured flowers from a sheet of Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper. I have then positioned and layered them to create the flowers in a basket effect. I have stamped the 'Happy Birthday' greeting from the new Level 2 Hostess Set Something to Celebrate. This has then been punched with the Modern Label punch and then layered over the Designer Label punch shape (Blushing Bride).

Any questions, please get in touch: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 609249.

Happy Crafting ;0)
-XX-

New Baby card for a lazy Sunday afternoon

Here is my one and only make for this weekend. A new baby card for a school friend who had her first baby on April 29th (sharing the birth with the Royal Wedding!)

I'm hoping to hand deliver this tomorrow (and maybe meet little Lily too ;0)

Colours: Blushing Bride and Rose Red. Stamp sets: All in the Family and Jumble Alphabet. Accessories: Itty Bitty Button with a tiny heart punched using the Heart to Heart punch, length of Blushing Bridge Stitched-Poly Ribbon.

Also, do you like my new watermark? I got it from the very talented Karen Giron. I do love the little bird over the 'a' ;0)

Any questions about the Stampin' Up! supplies used, please get in touch.

Happy crafting all.

-XXX-

Happy Engagement Natalie and Ben

My lovely friend Natalie got engaged over the Bank Holiday weekend. So I sat down and created this card to celebrate her new fiance status. This is using an old favourite stampset, Love You Much. The greeting is from Cheer and Wishes. The images are stamped onto Stampin' Up's gorgeous Shimmery White cardstock in Rose Red ink. I embellished the heart with the tiny basic pearls. The background hearts are clear embossed to give the card more texture and depth. The scrunched ribbon is the new Rose Red Seam Binding ribbon from the Stampin' Up! mini catalogue. The photo has come out a little dark (I was losing light). But I am super pleased with the result. Now off to get this in the post.......

Happy crafting ;0)

-X-

Bank Holiday Weekend Makes

I haven't had a great deal of time for crafting this weekend but here are a couple of things I did manage to put together. I bought a newspaper on Saturday morning which had a Royal Wedding feature so that I could put together a page in my weekly scrapbooking journal. I loved the wedding so much that I wanted to give it a whole page to itself in my journal (breaking my rule of one page per week!!). This picture is so beautiful that I couldn't bring myself to cut their feet off so it is folded over. I have put the date along the fold to cover the folded over print (I also used an off cut of  the reverse of the Union Jack paper to create a backing). I have been collecting together Union Jack themed scrapbooking bits for a while. I thought I might use them for a London page sometime in the future. But the wedding photo seemed the perfect opportunity to use them.

I finally got to use my beautiful Union Jack ribbon which I've had in my stash for a year or so. I love it but can never find the right opportunity to actually cut it. The letters were cut with my Cricut (Don Juan cartridge) from Whisper White, Real Red and Concord Cruch spotted Designer Series Paper. Oh and i embellished with basic rhinestones to bling the LO up a bit.

I'm happy to have created a patriotic page to look back on in my journal. For me it reflects the pride and happiness I felt while watching the wedding.

And here is my other lovely make for the weekend. My sisters 21st birthday cake. I havent baked a cake in AGES and here I was making 5 separate layers for this huge mountain of a birthday cake (I created 5 separate layers- each one a different colour to create a rainbow effect inside once the cake was cut). It was a family affair in the end, Mum helped me bake the cakes, Natalie provided the chocolate topper and Sam bought the 'Happy Birthday' candles. It was far from perfect (and we ran out of vanilla icing) but I loved making it and Sophie seemed happy with the overall multicoloured effect.

 And here is the newly 21 Sophie enjoying the cake and her 'S' sparkler too.

Happy crafting ;0)

Sisterly Birthday Greetings & My First Alteration.....

Fingers crossed this will be live come Monday morning. I am scheduling this in advance as I will be at Mum and Dad's celebrating my littlest sisters 21st birthday today as you read this.

I wanted to share a couple of birthday projects I have been working on for Sophie. The first was a joint project with my Mum. Mum had been inspired by the configuration boxes out there in blogland and that we had seen at a recent craft fair. So we decided to have a go. Mum had a perfect box for the job which had originally housed Waitrose dried fruit and nuts. To cover it we scoured the local charity bookshops for a book of Shakespeare quotations (Soph loves her Shakespeare). Mum tore the book into strips and vintaged the pages up a bit with daubers and antique-y ink and then used these strips (glued with PVA) to cover the box. And then here is where I took over. I poured through all of my embellishments and scrapping bits and bobs to find all the lovely little things to put into the compartments to make it a proper 21st birthday box.

  For all you eagle eyed Stampin' Up! lovers you'll spot all  the SU touches I've managed to get in to these compartments (the key is stamped from Artistic Etchings, a filigree brad, the chipboard birds and a couple of brights buttons). I can't make such a lovely pressie for my sister without a little bit of Stampin' Up! ;0)

This second project is my card for my sister. I picked purple, gold and vanilla as my colour scheme (Soph loves purple). So for this card i combined Concord Crush DSP, Elegant Eggplant & Very Vanilla cardstock, gold and silver embossing powders, basic rhinestones and metallic brads.

I heat embossed 'Sophie' using my Stampin' Up! Broadsheet Alphabet stamp set, Versamark, silver embossing powders (and of course my trusted Embossing Buddy).  I wanted a more higgledy piggledy effect so guesstimated where to stamp without my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig or a ruler. I layered the embossed lettering onto Vanilla which I'd already edged with a gold pen. I punched holes into the four corners and poked gold brads through. I then raised this whole layer onto the main card with dimensionals.


I created my corners by clear embossing the circle pattern stamp from Artistic Etchings onto Elegant Eggplant. I then punched two of the medium sized hearts from the embossed design using my Heart to Heart Punch. I finished off with one of the big sparkly Stampin' Up! rhinestones.  I also gold embossed 4 of the Artistic Etchings keys (I hadnt even mounted this stamp until this week. I never thought I would use it and then my sis turned 21 and boom I've used it 5 times in a few days!) and cut round them carefully to create this corner design.

I even managed to vaguely tie this card into my previous project (purely by accident). I hadn't realised the text on this years Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper is Shakespeare. I typed in a section of the text into Google and it brought up the sonnet that the quote is from. So once again Sophie has a Shakespearian birthday card ;0)

One final photo for more of an artsy angle of the embossed Broadsheet Alphabet.

What a huge photo heavy post! As you can see I have been busy recently.

Hope you are all enjoying your long weekend (and thank goodness for 4 day weeks too....).

Happy crafting ;0)
-X-

Happy May 1st and a Happy Birthday to my Dad

In celebration of May Day and my Dad's birthday I am sharing the birthday card I've made him today. This is scheduled as I'll be BBQing with my family to celebrate (hopefully we're still enjoying lovely weather). We have my grandparents visiting as well as my sis home from Uni for the weekend.

I decided to keep Dad's birthday card quite simple as he wouldn't have appreciated the fuss of a highly decorated floral card *laugh* And as I haven't used my Owl Punch in a while I decided to give this an outing (along with the lovely Woodland Walk Designer Series Paper which I recently purchased but havent used). So here it is:

I've used the wood pattern paper with an oval punched out to represent a hole in the bark. The sentiment is stamped from the Level 2 Hostess Set Something to Celebrate in Chocolate Chip. I've punched the Owl from Chocolate Chip cardstock with his chest punched from coordinating paper from the Woodland Walk series. To finish I punched a leaf branch from the Two Step Bird punch.

Happy May Day Crafting ;0)

-X-