Rule Britannia!

Well I couldn't stop singing Rule Britannia after yesterday's card so I thought I should create a little blue, red and white number using the same stamp set.  I do love this new set and the quality - as with all SU stamps - is superb.  They produce such crisp images that they are a joy to work with.  Here's my patriotic creation:

It was a really quick card to make.  I stamped the ship's chart twice onto Whisper White card, lining it up with my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig.  The clipper was stamped in Night of Navy, with a sentiment added from the massively useful Teeny Tiny Wishes.  I fastened two eyelets down the left hand side and threaded some baker's twine through.  I think it adds nicely to the 'sea-fayrer' look, at least to my land-locked eyes!

Supplies
Stamps: The Open Sea, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Inks: Real Red, Night of Navy
Card: Night of Navy, Whisper White
Other: stamp-a-ma-jig, eyelets, Crop-a-dile, baker's twine

I'd like to enter this card into the Stampin' Royalty and Tuesday Throwdown challenges where it's all things masculine this week, together with the patriotic challenge at the Glitter Geeks.

Yesterday I shared a photo of our gorgeous little nephew and promised more info about what I've been up to the past few weeks.  Well, my second most exciting news is that come September, I will employed!!  Last week I was interviewed for a part-time teaching job at a lovely school where I did one of my initial teacher training placements... and I got the job!  I am thrilled to bits, over the moon, happy happy happy.....!  The fact that it's part-time means I will have chance to carry on with my Stampin' Up! business - which I absolutely love doing - as well as have more time at the weekends to spend with my husband.  Teaching full-time meant I hardly ever saw the poor man!  And of course some of the pennies might find their way to being spent on more crafting goodies......

Thank you so much for visiting today and thank you for all your lovely comments yesterday.  I have missed you all!  A special 'hello' to you today if this is the first time you've visited my square metre of blogdom.

The Open Sea

Bet you thought I'd got lost as it's been so quiet here!  It's been a manic few weeks with all manner of things happening, which I'll share over the next few blogposts.  I know... you'll cry if I don't share what's been going on in my square corner of Victoria-dom.  Here are a few tantalising hints: a birth; a job; a lot of gardening, very little of which was my own; an enormous amount of sunshine; a ceilidh; school assemblies; old friends; a promotion; cake, cake and more cake... and Socks!!

First, a card!  This was made using the fabulous new stamp set The Open Sea available in the Summer Mini.  We all struggle sometimes to come up with original masculine cards and this stamp set helps remedy that.  There are 5 stamps in the set: a ship's chart, a world map, a clipper type sailing ship, an anchor and a compass.  The chart is one of those very versatile background stamps, and I'm finding it ever so useful.  I do love using text as backgrounds, but it's nice to have something a bit different than just script.  The ship is stunning and so for my first blogged card using this set, I wanted to have it front row centre.

I followed the sketch over at Sketch n Stash but turned the vertical strip into a pennant and moved the smaller focal point ever so slightly.  I stamped the ship's chart first of all in Sahara Sand onto some Ivory card stock, and then cut out and adhered to a fancy Night of Navy die cut shape.  The rest of the card is fairly self-explanatory, I think, using designer paper for the background and vertical banner, wrapping baker's twine around three times and securing with a knot and the stamped anchor which I fussy cut out.

Here's a close-up of that magnificent ship:

Supplies
Stamps: The Open Sea
Ink: Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Night of Navy
Card: Naturals Ivory, Night of Navy
Paper: Soft Suede and Sahara Sand both from the Neutrals Designer Series Patterned Paper stack
Other: Island Indigo Baker's Twine, Picot Edge circle dies (non-SU)

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Sketch n Stash - this lovely stamp set has now been christened with ink!

Stampalot - medals and monarchs: this card makes me want to sing Rule Britannia!

The biggest news to tell you is that I am now an Auntie!  Baby Jacob was born at the start of the month, weighing 8lb 6oz, and we went to meet him this weekend.  I can confirm that he is as beautiful as his Auntie!  This photo was taken when he was just 16 hours old:

Thanks for visiting me after my long absence!

Tying the Knot

There are some stamp sets that you see and you just *have* to have.... well, quite a lot of stamp sets in my case, but you know what I mean.  I don't usually buy stamp sets that are for a particular occasion - I like to get more bang for my buck (or, indeed, for my pound) but Love & Laughter in the new Summer Mini was calling out to me.  It is contemporary, stylish, so so elegant and... well... just plain beautiful!  I had to have it.

Here is a card made featuring the beautiful bridal gown:

I started by stamping the dress is Soft Suede ink onto paper vellum and adhering to a piece of gorgeous metallic paper from the Mocha Morning collection.  I spent a long time with different papers on my desk trying to decide which ones worked best together, but once I'd made my mind up, the card was very quick to put together.  I initially tied a bow with the ribbon (now retired - sorry!) but it looked too clunky so, as this is a wedding card, I just had to tie a knot!

Here's a close-up of that magnificent dress:

Supplies
Stamps: Love & Laughter
Ink: Soft Suede
Card: textured Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Paper: Mocha Morning Speciality Designer Series Paper
Other: pearls, Very Vanilla Velvet Designer Ribbon

I made the card following the rather lovely sketch at Retrosketches and I'd also like to enter this into Top Tip Tuesday's Clean & Simple challenge.  My tip is to consider careful placement of pearls and rhinestones to hide any adhesive when securing paper vellum or acetate... or, even better, use brads!

I mentioned yesterday that we had a busy weekend.  On Sunday afternoon I went down to the village tennis club's open day with an open mind... I have never played tennis before but my husband and I are looking for a summer sport given that the badminton club doesn't restart until October.  After an initial 30 minutes of trying to hold the racket like a badminton racket, I started to get into it.  The courts are lovely, right in the heart of the Lune Valley, and are at the end of a country lane so it was just us, tennis balls, afternoon tea and a spectator pheasant.  Life doesn't get any more British than that really.

Thanks for visiting,

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

Did you miss me?  I bet you thought you'd gone deaf not hearing from me for so long!  It's been a topsy turvy couple of weeks as I've been helping out with lots of different things leaving me very little energy and time at the end of the day to indulge in some crafting.  Hopefully things will be settling back to a degree of normality now...

I have heaps of new goodies to share with you now that the new Summer Mini Catalogue has launched.... oh so many beautiful stamp sets, scented embossing powder (yes, really!), baker's twine in the in-colours, framelits wafer thin dies, edging dies and embossing folders...... as well as a fantastic offer if you fancy joining Stampin' Up! yourself.  Far too much for one blog post so I hope you will pop back soon to learn more!

To business: it's mellow yellow week at Less is More... gosh it's a hard colour to use as the predominant colour of a card!  But it's so cheerful too that it was good fun to work with.  There are some fantastic submissions this week (as always!) so do pop over and have a look for some incredible inspiration.  Not only that but it's a birthday celebration at CAS-ual Fridays too with oodles of stunning entries to nosey at!

Here is my card:

The stamp is one of the gorgeous new sets called 'Apothecary Art', which coordinates perfectly with the Framelits wafer thin nesting dies.  I stamped in Soft Suede, before colouring in the flowers with So Saffron, a touch of Daffodil Delight and More Mustard.  The greeting was added in More Mustard using my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  All that was left to do was add the gorgeous little Embosslits butterflies: I made one layer from More Mustard card and another from paper vellum, adhering pearls down the centres.

Supplies
Stamps: Apothecary Art
Ink: Soft Suede, More Mustard, markers in So Saffron, Daffodil Delight and More Mustard
Card: Whisper White, So Saffron
Other: Embosslits Beautiful Wings, Framelits, paper vellum, pearls, stamp-a-ma-jig

We had a very busy weekend as we'd lined up lots of things we wanted to achieve. One of those was climbing Ingleborough Fell as you can see it from our house... and I have a thing about climbing hills I can see from our windows.  It was absolutely glorious weather, we made good time and visibility was superb from the top.  It really was a fantastic walk!  We're umming and ahing now about walking the Yorkshire Three Peaks this year.

Hope you had a good May Day weekend too!

Thanks for stopping by,

Simply Adorned Jewellery

I'm really trying to show you everything from the Spring Mini Catalogue before it ends on Monday... but there's so much yumminess in there that I'm struggling to fit it all in as well as show you sneaky peaks of the Summer Mini!  The one big thing I haven't shown you yet is the beautiful range of jewellery that Stampin' Up! has brought us.  I got very excited about the locket in particular because you can customise the inside to show whatever you want.  I am always keen to find new ways to use my crafty supplies (probably because I have too many!)

If I thought photographing a 12x12 layout was difficult yesterday, that was nothing compared to trying to photograph the inside of a bevelled locket, but these are my best results:

I've already made two inserts for my locket.  It's so easy!  This is just a scrap of Beyond the Garden paper (which I got free as part of April's offer - check my sidebar for details) with an Embosslits butterfly popped up in the middle.  Since the locket is bevelled, you can create dimension within the locket which is fabulous.

Supplies

Card: Marina Mist

Paper: Beyond the Garden Designer Series Paper

Other: Simply Adorned 61cm chain and 2.5 x 2.5 cm Bevelled Glass Front Charm, Big Shot, Embosslits Beautiful Wings

I'm hoping to post something tomorrow that goes with the locket... if the paint is dry enough for me to finish it!  I'm saying nothing more!  In the meantime, I'd like to enter this into the 'anything but a card' challenges over at Top Tip Tuesday and Crafting for All Seasons.

The 'Crafting Corner' clean-up is well underway.  As I went to make a cup of tea this morning, unbeknown to me, Socks had jumped up into the middle of the mess on the table (the table being about the only place in the house he is not allowed).  I managed to get this get shot of him looking most disapproving of the mess before shooing him down:

He's definitely tutting... either that or he quite likes my Big Shot!  He can't have been that perturbed though as he then proceeded to go to sleep in the ray of sunshine that was conveniently by my feet!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Christmas Layout

It might be April but I've been looking for a different use for some of my Sale-a-bration papers that I have left and the rich red of one paper made me think of Christmas... so I printed off our Christmas tree photo and set about turning it into a layout.  I'm still new to all this scrapbooking lark so I followed the 'big picture' challenge at Use Your Stuff and a layout in Scrap 365 magazine that I treated myself to at the weekend so as not to scare myself too much.

It's a lot harder taking photos of a 12x12 than a card but here is the finished layout:

I measured out my SAB paper to fit the width of the textured Chocolate Chip base layer, adding in eyelets with my Crop-a-dile.  Do you know this is the first time I've used my Crop-a-dile for this?  Normally it's just an elaborate and rather expensive hole punch!  I threaded wool through the eyelets like in the magazine layout.

Now can you guess how I made the border pieces?  SU are bringing out the Framelits dies in the Summer Mini Catalogue, and I drew around the top edge of one repeatedly and cut out.  The rest of the layout is fairly self-explanatory: adding in layers of Chocolate Chip textured card, more red SAB paper and die-cut striped Crumb Cake patterned paper.  The little robin at the bottom of my journalling is from Everything Eleanor.

The tag at the bottom has been made with the coordinating stamp set 'Apothecary Art' which goes perfectly with the new Framelits dies!  I do love how SU makes everything work together!  The flowers were coloured with my blender pen and Riding Hood Red and Old Olive marker pens.  Then both frames were chopped in half and lined up with the bottom edge of the layout.

Supplies

Stamps: Apothecary Art (available from May 1st), Everything Eleanor

Inks: Chocolate Chip, marker pens in Real Red, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive and Soft Suede

Card: textured Chocolate Chip

Paper: retired Sale-a-bration Everyday Enchantment (sorry!), Crumb Cake from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper stack

Other: eyelets, Crop-a-dile, wool, stamp-a-ma-jig, Framelits dies (available from May 1st)

Do let me know if I can be of any help with SU supplies... and if you'd like a paper copy of the Summer Mini Catalogue posting to you, just drop me an email.

No funny tales to share with you today so I'll leave you with a bad joke instead:

Why is 6 scared of 7?

Because 7 ate 9 and 10...

Many thanks as always for visiting,

When Everything Eleanor Met Patterned Paper

I've been eager to join in the challenges at Colour Q for a while now, but for one reason or another, this is the first time I'm participating.  And what lovely colours they are.  I don't have any of the in-colours so had to substitute Baja Breeze in for Pool Party but I still think it's a lovely combination.

Over the past few days I have been playing around with some of the new stamp sets available with the launch of the Summer Mini on May 1st and I might just have some sneaky peeks for you later this week... If you are in the UK and would like a paper copy of the Summer Mini Catalogue posting to you, send me a quick email or give me a ring on 07977 141605.  The PDF copy will be linked to my sidebar on May 1st.

For today's card though, I have been enjoying the lovely flourishes, frames and flowers that make up the gorgeously sophisticated Everything Eleanor.  Here's what I came up with for the challenge:

The frame was stamped in Baja Breeze and cut out with my trusty sharp paper snips, with the sentiment stamped in Bravo Burgundy using my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  The two flowers were stamped into Ivory card, cut out, and the stamens coloured with a Baja Breeze marker pen.  I just can't get enough of that flourish at the moment... this time it was stamped in Bravo Burgundy onto some Very Vanilla patterned paper, and I love the two tone effect this has given to the stamping.  The frame and flowers were popped up on dimensionals.

I felt the colours needed tying together a bit more so I layered first onto Baja Breeze and then onto Bravo Burgundy.  Then just because I felt like it, I added a layer of beautiful textured Very Vanilla card to pick out the vanilla stripes on the paper.  All-in-all I'm rather pleased with the result!

Supplies
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Pumpkin Pie, Baja Breeze
Card: textured Very Vanilla, Bravo Burgundy, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Naturals Ivory
Paper: Very Vanilla from the Neutrals Designer Series Patterned Paper
Other: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Baja Breeze marker pen

I have started to sort out my crafting corner.  It's slow work as I keep getting distracted by things I'd forgotten about.  Socks has been getting involved too, keeping my pile of Craft Stamper magazines warm with his furry behind!

Thanks for visiting Socks and me today,

Mocha Morning Patchwork

Oh what beautiful papers! Mocha Morning speciality papers include sheets with metallic ink and others with black flocking... perfect for stroking!  And they are far too nice to throw away even the tiniest scrap which is why the sketch at Mojo Monday is perfect for them.

I've used two products that will be disappearing at the end of this month: the beautiful Very Vanilla Velvet Designer Ribbon (again perfect for stroking!) and the fabulous and ever so useful Postage Stamp Punch.  If you've been umming and ahing about these, the Spring Mini Catalogue ends on 30th April so do get in touch before then!  Remember too that during April you can choose a free set of patterned paper if your order comes to £45 or more - click the link in my sidebar for more details.

Here's my card; I've done something similar before but it was a much brighter version.

I punched out all the squares and adhered to Early Espresso card.  The flower was stamped in VersaMark onto a scrap of Early Espresso and then embossed in gold before being stuck to a Very Vanilla punched circle. I punched a hole in the circle with my Crop-a-dile before threading through some ribbon and tying it with linen thread.  This was all then fastened to my ivory card base.

Supplies
Stamp: Triple Treat Flower
Ink: VersaMark
Card: Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla
Paper: Mocha Morning Speciality Designer Series Paper
Other: Very Vanilla Velvet Designer Ribbon, linen thread, gold embossing powder, heat tool, postage stamp punch, Crop-a-dile

I've been tackling some awful jobs over the past few days.  You know the sort of jobs you put off for as long as you can.  Well, when we moved house we managed to unpack quite quickly but lots of empty boxes and lots of mess accumulated in the garage until it was impossible to move around in there.  Two days of hard graft and it is clean and tidy.  And I must admit I do feel rather satisfied with it.  I might make the most of this feeling and clear out my crafting corner as well as it's getting a bit messy...  I wonder if Socks will help?

Thanks for visiting today and thank you all for your lovely comments.  It's lovely to visit you back and see what you have been up to!

These are a Few of my Favourite Things...

I have a new favourite stamp set and a new favourite builder punch that I have combined to make today's card.  Everything Eleanor is an incredibly versatile stamp set complete with flourish, frame, flowers and more.  I can see so many uses for this set already.  I was determined to use it to make a card for a challenge this week, but then I also wanted to play with my new owl builder punch.  This fellow has been tempting me for months and I gave in and bought him with some of my birthday pennies.

Here is what I came up with:

My starting point was the sketch from Simply Stampin'.  I stamped the flourish in Old Olive a couple of times along the bottom, before cutting the panel of Crumb Cake designer paper into three and inking the edges a little.  I then stamped the frame, positioning the greeting from Happiest Birthday Wishes where I wanted it with my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig.  The owl was so much fun to make and I can see him appearing on many future projects.  He is punched out of Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Whisper White and Basic Black card.  The three panels were adhered to a piece of Whisper White before being secured to the Naturals Ivory base.

Here's a close-up of the cheeky chap:

Supplies
Stamp: Everything Eleanor, Happiest Birthday Wishes
Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive
Card: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory, Basic Black, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip
Paper:  Crumb Cake from Neutrals Designer Series Paper
Other: Owl Builder Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Speaking of cheeky chaps, this is what mine was doing earlier:

To the left of this photo was the ironing board and a big pile of ironing I was steadily making my way through.  I think he was just rubbing my nose in it!

Thanks for visiting today,

Playing With Pastels

I know... two posts in one day... well I was so chuffed with what I've just been making that I couldn't wait to show you all.  The other day I was going through a big box with odds and ends in it and I found a very old and largely unused set of chalk pastels.  Probably bought when I fancied myself an artist... then I realised I couldn't draw (probably why I'm procrastinating about joining in Less is More this week!)...

One of the stamps I bought with my birthday money was Sweet Floral, a rather beautiful hyacinth type flower.  Well, I say bought, actually it was FREE as I got it with my hostess pounds.  As I am incapable of reading the catalogue correctly, I hadn't realised just how big this stamp actually is and was literally gobsmacked when it arrived (it doesn't happen often so savour the moment!).  See for yourself:

My first thought was to grab the marker pens and start colouring in the stamp but then I discovered a technique called 'popping pastels'.  Apparently it's been around for donkeys, but I'd never heard of it before.  Basically, I inked up my stamp with Versamark and stamped onto Whisper White card stock.  I then used cotton wool balls to dab on chalk pastels, trying to keep to the stamped image so as not to smear chalk all over the card.  I built up layers of colour, starting with the palest colour first, adding deeper shades where I wanted them.  Easy peasy... so I made two:

Supplies
Stamp: Sweet Floral
Ink: VersaMark
Card: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory, Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue
Other: 'Victoria' Crochet Trim (I bought this because it is named after me!!), pastels (Stampin' Up! do a fabulous range of pastels to coordinate with all the colours in their colour families)

I'd like to enter these into the 2 Sisters 'flowers' challenge and the Card Crafter's Circle 'Pastels or Gentle Colours' challenge.  Do you think I'll get brownie points for actually using pastels as well as pastel colours?!  Not if Anne-Marie has anything to do with it, I bet!!!

Thanks for visiting again,

Create an.... Ice Cream?

Last Tuesday I may have uttered the words "tomorrow I'll show you..."  Well life was rather selfish and got in the way of my crafting plans.  Hopefully some normality will return now.  I'll pick up where I left off and show another use for the Cupcake Builder Punch which will be retired at the end of April.  Sad face.  I love using the cupcake stamps and punch and am planning a bit of a cupcake fest to sell at our village gala!

Again, not a cupcake today, but instead an ice cream...

The three scoops (the more the better in my book) are all the icing part of the Builder punch, with the cone run through my Big Shot with my lattice embossing folder, as is the pink matting layer.  Don't you think the embossing looks like a wafer?!  And do you like the card I made my base from?  It's Naturals Ivory and has little tiny speckles in it that remind of that really nice vanilla ice cream which still has the vanilla bits in it. Mmm....

The sentiment is stamped is Soft Suede to match the scoop of chocolate ice cream (should have used Chocolate Chip really, Suede not being the most edible substance ever!), attached in a banner shape with a button from my odd button tin and some twine.  Now I do love a bit of bakers' twine - just makes me think of summer - and if you love it too, keep watching this space!

Mmmm makes me hungry just looking at it!

Supplies
Stamps: Create a Cupcake
Ink: Soft Suede
Card: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla (of course), Pink Pirouette, Real Red, Naturals Ivory, Crumb Cake
Other: Bakers twine, button, Big Shot, lattice embossing folder, marker for cherry stalk, dimensionals


As always, if you are interested in Stampin' Up! or have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me by sending me an email or giving me a ring on 07977 141605.  All orders of £45 or more during April qualify for a free set of designer paper - click the link in my sidebar for more information.

There are some great challenges on at the moment which I'm trying to make time to enter.  If you're out of the blogging loop for a while, it's hard to catch up!  Anyway, I'd like to enter this into the CR84FN colour challenge where they are looking for medium pink, tan and cream combinations.

Right, I have a hungry cat who wants his lunch, not to mention his hungry servant.  I wonder if we have any ice cream in the freezer...

Thanks for visiting! Take care,

Create A Cupcake... With Not A Cupcake In Sight

The Spring Mini Catalogue ends at the end of April and that means you only have a couple more weeks to get your hands on its contents!  One of the most popular items has been the Create a Cupcake stamp set and coordinating builder punch.  Cupcakes - or muffins, as I still insist on saying - have never been so popular so these stamps are a valuable addition to any collection.  Now I will be showing you a few cards featuring cupcakes, but for my first card with this set, I decided to have a play around and see what else they could make.

I thought the cases would make good Easter baskets in Crumb Cake (or any of the brown inks) and added in layers of grass with some torn strips of Old Olive card.  The baskets are the cupcake cases from the stamp set, with handles cut out of Crumb Cake card to match.  The hearts are one of the little toppers for the cupcakes, while the clouds are the icing.  The sky is Bashful Blue card - I wanted a nice pastel combination - and I inked the clouds in the same ink to match.  I chose the colours of the little hearts based on the lovely sorbet inspiration at Daring Cardmakers but I hope I'm still allowed to use blue - I have yet to see a green sky so there was no way round it!  I'd also like to enter this over at Simply Stampin', where it's all things Easter.

The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes, a most versatile stamp set with a sentiment for most occasions. This was stamped in Tangerine Tango to match one of the heart colours and snipped into a banner shape. The whole panel was mounted twice onto textured white card stock and adhered to a Certainly Celery base.

Supplies
Stamps: Create a Cupcake, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Certainly Celery, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue
Card: Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Other: sponge daubers, Cupcake Builder Punch


As always, if you are interested in these or any other SU supplies, or have any questions, please do get in touch!


I was going to show you an actual cupcake with this set tomorrow, but I've changed my mind as I've just seen an another potential use for this set.  You'll have to come back to see what it is!

Thanks for visiting today,

Chipboard Triptych

When asked by a friend to make a card for a 30th birthday, I thought 'no problem'.  Except that the birthday girl in question is a triplet and their mum was calling their joint birthday party 'The Big 90'.  Except that my friend had some rather definite ideas about what should be on the card... like a teepee and fairies and the house name and a garden.... the list went on....

After a few false starts, I decided to transform three pieces of chipboard into a triptych birthday card (one panel per triplet) and, after seven hours of constant creativity, here is the finished project:

I started by rubbing my Versamark ink pad around the edges of each piece of chipboard and embossing in gold.  I didn't want to see any chipboard edges.  This is the front cover:

Part of the garden scene is now revealed with the other side being left blank for my friend's birthday message.  This fairy (and the others) were all found on a copyright-free image website for tattoo artists!!  They were printed onto Whisper White card stock, coloured with my Versamarker pen and clear embossed, as were the titles.

The triptych garden scene is revealed!  The birthday triplets are having a teepee in the garden for their birthday party, hence its significance.  The teepee was made with triangular shapes of Very Vanilla card, with some craft wood stubs positioned at the top.

The panels were all created in the same way: the fairies were printed onto plain Whisper White card, then coloured with my Versamarker and clear embossed.  Next, the background was inked.  I used Bashful Blue for the sky and Crumb Cake and Old Olive for the ground.  Then came the fun bit: creating the garden.  This was entirely created with the marvellously versatile Autumn Days stamp set.  I used a combination of Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Garden Green and Crumb Cake inks.  Finally I added a few tiny paper flowers which were one of the first crafting goodies I ever bought for my supplies.  I've almost finished the packet now; I'm getting quite emotional at the thought of finishing it!

Here are close-up views of the central and right-hand panels:

And lastly, here is the funny back panel that my friend insisted on having as she thought the picture was so funny!

These panels were all mounted onto Early Espresso card and adhered to the chipboard.  I punched holes with my Crop-a-dile and tied them together with Whisper White ribbon.  I then made a box to house it and tied it up with ribbon.

Supplies
Stamps: Autumn Days
Inks:  Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Garden Green
Card:  Early Espresso, Whisper White, Very Vanilla
Other: Whisper White 5/8" satin ribbon, Crop-a-dile, Versamarker pen and Versamark inkpad, clear embossing powder, gold embossing powder, sponge daubers, heat tool
Non SU: tiny mulberry paper flowers, small stubs of craft wood, computer generated titles and silhouettes, 3 chipboard panels

This is one of the biggest scale projects I've ever done and I have to say I'm rather pleased with the result. While I'm feeling keen, I might have to give another big project a go!  As always, if you are interested in any SU supplies, please do not hesitate to get in touch by email or by phone on 07977 141605.  I will be delighted to assist you with your papercrafting projects!  During April, if your order comes to £45 or more, you also qualify for free designer paper! Click on the link in my sidebar to see your choices.

Challenges

Craft A Scene - silhouettes

Charisma Cardz - chipboard or stickers

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - emboss it!

Hope you like it! And if you want to see my Easter story themed chocolate cake I posted earlier, click here.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

Thanks as always for visiting - I look forward to visiting you back,