My first machine sewn card!:)

My lovely husband gave me a mini easy-to-use lightweight sewing machine for Christmas so that I can add some extra detail to my cards and projects :) so here is my first one! I CASEd a similar version made by my upline Liz Shannon, just in time to give it to my husband today for his birthday :)

Zoo babies birth announcement

This is essentially CASEd from the European Stampin Up Convention :) it's a mini blackboard and easel and I've used zoo babies and the white chalk board marker with black paper as the background. I'm very excited to give this to our Godson :)

Fun with the 'Christmas Star'

The 'Christmas Star' stamp is great value and is really beautiful. I've had fun today with my friend Lauren - we took on the maths challenge of making the 3D decoration work :) lots of angles and tabs! The projects today range from very simple to a 3D envelope and Christmas decoration - I hope you like!

Convention Swap!

I've just come back from the brilliant Stampin Up Convention! I spent the weekend with fellow demonstrators and we learnt lots of useful things and saw loads of beautiful projects. One of the options is to take 'swaps' with you - you make lots of card fronts and you swap them with other Demonstrators card fronts and come home with lots of ideas. This is my swap - simple but bright. I hope you like it......

A Christmas Giftcard

My upline, the lovely Liz Shannon did this in her class a long time ago and I revived it for one of my Christmas Classes this year. Using a combination of Christmas DSP, regular card stock and using a top note die means you can create a card with a pocket for a gift card on the front, and when you open it you've still got the usual space to write your Christmas Card inside. I love this technique :) 

Birthday Basics Dress Up

I received a lovely swap that was very similar to this card, but I wanted to use the brilliant Birthday Basics paper which is just GORGEOUS! The colours are Raspberry Ripple, Crisp Canteloupe and Very Vanilla :)

Vintage vintage!

A return to my daubing/sponging addiction!:) I LOVED making this card and the way it folds is a bit random probably because I was a bit haphazard in its creation. The colour palette is pool party and soft suede on very vanilla. I used the lattice and designer frames embossing folders, and the stamp sets 'Everything Eleanor', 'Creative Elements' and 'Very Vintage' wheel. The ribbon is Crochet Trim :)

I know this stamp is retired but....

SUCH a beautiful stamp from last year. It works really well with a second layer built onto it, and I used blender pens with some neutral pinks and greens (blushing bride, rose red, old olive, pear pizazz) to build up the colours before adding crystal effects to the top layer - it dulls/ages the colours - which is very 'Leigh-Anne friendly' and gives a brilliant shine too :)

O Holy Night - warmer colour palette

Same lovely stamp, warmer colour palette this time - cherry cobbler and soft suede, with the lacy brocade embossing folder and some much needing daubing :)....and not forgetting 'that's the ticket' - GREAT stamp set!

O Holy Night

I love this stamp from the seasonal catalogue 'O Holy Night'. It goes really well with the Winter Frost DSP and co-ordinaries with smoky slate, island indigo and pool party

Postcard Scrapbook!

I still had lots of etcetera paper left and thought a scrapbook home for the postcards would be fun to make. I used the template from Liz Shannon's instructions (you can purchase them from her blog - elizabethscraftroom.blogspot.com) and filled it with etcetera paper and vintage loveliness.....

Etcetera postcards

I got this designer paper, Etcetera, for a team card sample swap and after i'd made up all the samples I had half a pack left to play with. It's beautiful and vintagey and I couldn't resist using it with the new postcard stamp to see if I could create sonething lovely! The postage due stamp set, and the new hostess benefit set postage collection came in handy for this one as did the needlepoint border.

Whitewashed butterfly

I discovered this technique recently on the internet - and although painfully time consuming it's so effective! The butterfly and flowers are stamped using versamark and white embossing powder, and then coloured in - whitewashed - using white craft ink. You can then build up the colour from your ink pad as desired using the aquapainter

Dress up!

I wasn't sure about the dress up framelits when I first saw them - but I'm a total convert - you just have to peek online to see some beautiful cards made with this one.....this is back to my fav vintage style....and I can't believe the fantastic French foliage set is retiring! I've used it in the background here - so sad!!!

Secret Garden Watercolours

I wanted to have a go at some watercolours this morning and thought it might go well with the lovely secret garden stamp set. I've heat embossed with versamark and white powder and then used my aquapainter with pink pirhouette and rose red ink, before cutting it out using the matching framelit. The leaves are in the same framelit pack and the background card is certainly celery

The Open Sea

I love this set of stamps! I was in need of a man card so this is my current go-to stamp set. I used natural paper, a few inks from the neutral collection, and midnight muse

Hole in one!

I saw a version of this online and just had to have a go! Largely punch art really.....

Faux patina engagement card

I used one of the faux patina pieces from my last entry - this one is certainly not strictly faux patina though - and personalised it to make an engagement card for my friends Louise and Neil. The base colours for this were pink pirhouette and rose red, and there's some iridescent ice heat embossed to add some sparkle - hope you like the result!

Faux Patina

I saw this technique online recently and just had to have a go! I decided to try a few colours and this is the result.......if you want to know what colours I used for any of them feel free to message me :)