It's a Big Celebration!

A big 'Hello' from me. After a little break for some personal time I am back in the mood for some crafting. I can say that all that crafting at Christmas and the last flurry of card making left me all crafted-out for a little longer than I was expecting.

Of course, I did not completely down tools (mostly for fear my hubby might sell off all my crafting goodies if I did that!), I just took some time out from the blog and showing my creations for a while and crafted for pleasure when I had a birthday card or gift to craft.

So today I am sharing with you a very special card for a very special birthday - and it's a biggy! This is the card and gifting for my Father for his 70th birthday. I have used nearly entirely all retired products for this one  and then added some new elements. I had been saving these lovely designer papers for a special occasion and this one certainly was! The papers, if you were wondering, were called World Spectacular and I just thought the wording on them was perfectly fitting.

 

As we were wishing from both of us and our little boy I used a large folded card template to play on the words so that folded the card said 'Grandad' and then when opened up the wording expanded to 'Grandad' and 'Dad', saving me making a second card! I had some chipboard lettering leftover from previous stock so sponged this with daubers and crumb cake for the large lettering. The great thing about the designer papers was that with some selection the rest of the wording I wanted on the card was already on there!  

I added some additional stamping with the stamp sets of Four Your Party and Four You on the centre folded section. The numbers and '&' were from the Perfect Printed Numbers Die. The 'TH' comes from the Project Life stamp set, Day to Day which really does come in handy for numbering and dating projects. The background card is Early Expresso and for the mat layer and accents I added Island Indigo which is in the DSP colours.

I made a rosette using two strips of DSP glued together and scoring at intervals using the Simply Scored Tool. I punched a circle of card ready to hold the rosette and then folded the rosette strip alternatively each way to create the concertina folding needed. Once folded, I stuck the ends together with Sticky Strip for a firm hold.  I then put some hot glue in the centre of the card circle and formed the rosette sitting it on top of the circle, holding it in place until it was secured.  My rosette ribbons were then easily created using the Banner framelits and some more of the DSP.

The back of the card, did not get forgotten.  As it was so large I cut the card from two pieces and joined it so to cover the join I used another great sheet of the DSP with the heading 'Latest and Greatest' which I then used to write our personal message. On the side panel though I had a great idea, creating a pocket the perfect size for the gift card we were gifting for the occasion.

A extra special card of this size needed an envelope so I quickly made a box envelope for it  with a decorated belly band  with a Chalk Talk die. Also as my son had a little special gift too I made a quick scallop tag top gift bag to co-ordinate.

After all that design and crafting, we had a lovely family celebration meal at the Swan Hotel in Alresford.  For those of you visiting that are not local, Alresford is a beautiful Georgian town near to where my father lives and the Swan Hotel there did a fantastic job with the food and service too.  It really was great to see all the family together and I know it was a special day to remember for everyone there.

Now I am back, I hope you are all enjoying the new Spring Summer Catalogue.  Don't forget it is that Special Sale-a-Bration time for extra Hostess rewards and Free Product for all orders (Free product earnt for every £45 spend).

Suzanne
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To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too.

Countdown to Christmas #1 Advent Treat Box Stack

Here it is, the first signs of the Countdown to Christmas and my beautiful All Is Calm Treat Box Advent project which I sooooo loved making!  It was in my favourite All Is Calm speciality paper, but not only that, it was lots of little cute Tiny Treat Boxes, I love cute little things as you know. Shhh! It is a secret as to whether any of the boxes have any little surpirses left in them!

The Tiny Treat Boxes feature in the Autumn/Winter catalogue and come in a pack of 25 boxes perfect for advent. Someone at Stampin' Up! obviously thought of this project when designing the pack, right?  They are £6.25 for the pack and have been very popular, too popular for demand!  Not to worry, if you like the project and they are on back order, why not make your own tiny boxes with the Gift Box Punch Board (new in the Aumtun/Winter Catalogue)?  You can make a very small 1.75" x 1.75" box.  Or even make a very small box with the Envelope Punch Board if you already have it. (You will need to rotate how the boxes are stuck together and opened for these two methods).

  

One of our lovely team, Tracy Liscombe had put the project together and shared (we love sharing) and I was straight on to ordering my boxes and the number die (Perfect Print Numbers Die for the Big Shot) to have a play. 

Now, each of my boxes has been decorated with a square of the DSP paper and then number added.  I set my number on dimensionals which was a bit fiddly, but along with the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper it made them dazzle that little bit more. I used little strips of the foam pad from around the edges of Dimensionals. A very economical use for the leftovers too.

There are so many extras on here, too many to list! There is Baker's Twine, Rhinestones, Itty Bitty Accent punched Stars, ribbons, and greetings to mention just a few.  My little white and blue buttons I made using the Simply Pressed Clay and the Buttons and Blossoms Simply Pressed Clay Moulds. I then coloured then with a Soft Sky marker for the blue ones. The Nordic buttons from the Autumn/Winter catalogue have buttons just the right size too.

I found lots of the Holiday Homes stamp set was the right size to stamp onto the DSP paper to add some images. If you can spot him there is a little snowman. There are also Snowflakes and Santa of course who makes an appearance on Day 25.

I hope you love this project as much as I do and want to give it a try yourself.

Suzanne

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You can use a multiple of stamps and products you have to decorate your project how you wish, but here is some of the list of products (well most of what) I used

Tiny Treat Boxes	All Is Calm Specialty Designer Series Paper	Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die	Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set	Simply Pressed Clay
Buttons & Blossoms Simply Pressed Clay Molds	Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper
White Baker's Twine	Silver 1/8" Ribbon	Lost Lagoon 3/8" Silky Taffeta Ribbon

Alternative boxes can be made with one of the following tools and some Kraft Cardstock or coloured card:

Gift Box Punch Board

Envelope Punch Board

To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too.

Top Star! Star Framelits Fold Out Card

I always admire those card layouts that make a difference and love filling up my crafting resources with saved templates and measurements to try. This card is a layout I have tried before, but never on this scale!  It was my lovely hubby's birthday yesterday and it was a BIG one so I needed a BIG card.

I did have a template, but not the measurements to work from, but I didn't let that stop me.  A few waste sheets of card later I had managed to work out my measurements to utilise as much of a sheet of A4 (Night of Navy) that I could to make this fold out card. It measures a whole 21cm across the bottom and 14.5cm high to the mid fold line (top of card when it is standing).

My layers were in Bermuda Bay and Pool Party and of course, there is the fantastic Silver Foil card there to make the star shine out.  I wanted to make the '40' stand out and cut this using the Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die in the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper. As the card was for hubby who is not a sparkle and glitter kinda guy this was plenty of glitter for him!  The die is getting a lot of use right now with Advent workshop planning so do come back and check on Christmas classes coming up to see more of it.

The 'Birthday Wishes' came from my trusty 'Four You' stamp set which has the four most used sayings for throughout the year.  You can also see my background stamping in Pool Party which has the 'celebrate', ' cheers' and a few 'hugs & kisses' in there too to dress up the other panels. These are from the Good Greetings set which is FREE with hostess sales until the end of this month.

The main idea for the card was to feature the layered Star which shows just how effective the Star Framelits are when layered. I layered my stars and the numbering with dimensionals to get the raised layers. The numbers are a little fiddly, but I have worked out the small strips around the dimensionals are just about the right size to cut to make little pieces to raise the numbers.

I then used mostly punched stars using the small star punch from the Itty Bitty Accents punch pack to decorate around the card - this is a must for Christmas projects! It is just the right size for any offcuts from other punched or die cut pieces I have so I am getting very economical with my scraps. This is a blessing as my scraps box was getting so full I could not close it!

For the measurements for the card I will try and put together some instructions for next time.

Now, once I had a BIG card, I needed a BIG envelope. Not to panic, envelope board to the rescue.  I took a 30.5cmx30.5cm (12"x12") sheet and cut it to 30.2cmx30.2cm. I then just lined up the edge of the paper to the furthest point on the board (the furthest edge after the numbering stops). I followed all the instructions as you normally would and the finished envelope measured 22.5cmx17.8cm. A generous fit to ensure my star was still intact on the day!

Everything was super-sized this birthday including the huge carrot cake I managed to bake and decorate in-between card making. Baked to order for one very happy birthday boy. Job done.

All this birthday activity and there is still Christmas planning to do.  Stampin' Up! have now given us more Christmas products to choose from.

You can take a look at the supplement which is now available on my catalogue page Click here.

More stamps to co-ordinate with the Star Framelits and more Stars before your eyes with the Many Merry Stars Simply Created Kit.


Suzanne
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Stars Framelits Dies	Silver Foil Sheets	Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die	Four You	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set
Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Pool Party A4 Card Stock	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad
Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Stampin' Dimensionals	Whisper White A4 Card Stock

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too.