Christmas Mistletoe Love

Today's card is a special one.  As it gets close to Christmas it is time to start spending time with those you hold most dear to you and to show them how much they mean to you.  This card is for my husband so I had to reel in the glitter and glam to make a card he would appreciate without it being too girly.  Of course, there is still some glitter on there.......well it is Christmas after all!  I think he is getting used to the glitter and sparkle by now.

I cannot seem to find a place in the house to take a photo with enough light at the moment so I am not sure you can see the best of this card.  It uses a background of Cherry Cobbler and then a mat of that glitter Glimmer Paper.  There is also some added subtle glistening from the top layer of Shimmery White.  This last layer also gives the card a subtle off-white colouring which I like.

I have had this card layout in mind for some time.  After my last couple of projects with the Expressions Thinlits I knew I would be using them again soon for this card.  I have simply used the 'Love' saying from the set and cut it out from the Shimmery White layer.  I have then cut it again in the Cherry Cobbler cardstock and then used both of these, one either side of the cutout in the shimmery white layer for my stack of 'Love'.

I had wanted to add the mistletoe for the symbol of love at Christmas and also for some Christmas kisses.  I have a lovely set of mistletoe lights as a garland on my mantle piece and I had these as my inspiration.  The Little Leaves sizzlit die gave me my bunch of leaves. I cut from some Always Artichoke scraps I had as the nearest colour to the mistletoe green leaves.  I went for the Large pearls for the berries as these stood out the most on the card.    

I have added some Cherry Cobbler Chevron Ribbon in a couple of accents round the bunch of mistletoe and as a tab on the right hand side.  Just enough to keep the card simple.  There is also an Antique Brad to secure the ribbon wrap on the mistletoe.  I trimmed the ribbon in half along the length to use it for my wrap. 

I am just loving my Envelope Punch Board too.  Making custom cards means I can just cut the card to any size I want and then just quickly make a custom envelope afterwards.  No more trying to make the designs work in a standard card size and I can make larger cards for those dearest and then make a beautiful envelope out of designer paper to make it even more special.

I think my Christmas crafting is nearing it's final stages, not least as I need to tidy up the craft room (aka the guest bedroom) for our visitors on the big day!  Just a few more tags to make now as the elves have been busy wrapping here (finally).  I hope you are all feeling organised too and enjoying some time of rest.

Here is the list of what I used again:

Glimmer Paper (124005)

Shimmery White (121717)

Expressions Thinlits (132171)

Little Leaves Sizzlit (114511)

Antique Brads (117273)

Large Pearls (125577)

Chevron Ribbon (130012)

Don't forget too the Envelope Board, only £17.95 to make all your envelopes and much more! (133774)

Suzanne

x

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.

It's Mini, Magnificant and Memorable!

Wow, I cannot believe it is only a few more days left of the Annual and Spring/Summer catalogues.  To follow on from the gift ideas from my last post, here is another fantastic idea too for gifting and another use for those beautiful designer papers. 

It's a mini scrapbook album I made to share with a group of scrapbook ladies.  Easily made from 12"x12" cardstock and designer papers.  This one here is made from the Afternoon Daydream scrapbook kit which you may remember from my post for the Notes holder I made with it too. 

The scrapbook kits for SU really are very versatile in use and contain so much product, enough to make several projects - I still have some of it left even after making this and the notes holder! The accents are all co-ordinated and sticky for instant decoration to your projects.

On here are some of my other favourite products - that lovely Pool Party ruffled ribbon again and the Antique Brads to create the clasp.

 

Take a further look inside..........

 

You really can get creative with your designs and create a mini album with lots of lovely decorated pages to add your photo memories and journalling.

 

It's perfect for a gift for a friend, parent or grandparents to add all those memorable moments in your very own style.

Another album I made with the designer papers is this Storytime version.  My little one has been sharing memories of his nursery activities and is just at the age where he is learning his alphabet and numbers.  The school/learning theme in the Storytime papers was just the ticket to keep a little journal for us to save his special memories.

All the designer papers are changing with the new catalogue, so just 5 more days to order the current paper choices with many of them reduced by 40-50%.  The Storytime papers I used here are now only £4.98!

You too could easily put together one of these albums. Just choose your favourite designer papers and card to make one in your own style.
 
Why not get in touch to arrange to host a evening workshop or coffee morning for friends to see just how easy it is to make these lovely albums?  Great to gift, or even keep yourself. 

Just drop me a line at my email address craftyinkbuds@sky.com.

Fabric Fun - Candlelight Christmas and Beau Chateau

Well I have a couple of projects I have been holding onto and finishing in the last few weeks and I thought I would share these with you today.  These are all projects I made using fabric from Stampin' Up! The first fabric choice is from the Autumn/Winter catalogue which finishes on 31st January.  The fabric is the Candlelight Christmas, I think the red in this could work well for Valentines or Mother's Day gifting too.

 I have been wanting to make the Kilner pin cushion for a long time and finally at Christmas I was inspired by this fabric to make one.   The top of the pin cushion is cut with the Scallop circle Big Shot Die (113468) and the inside circle of fabric and card is cut from the Circles #2 Originals Die (114526).  There are quite a few videos out there showing the method for making this and with the two-part push together lid on the kilner it is so simple!
 
The best bit is I could make it without picking up a sewing needle! I stuck all the fabric using Sticky Strip (104294) which holds everything together firmly and I found there was no need to sew. For my pin cushion jar, I decorated the jar lid edges with the Crochet Trim (118481)  and then added a flower using the Fun Flowers (121812) die for the Big Shot.  The antique brad (117273) fits in perfectly with the vintage style of the trim and I used a sponge dauber just to ink the edges of the flower too.

All I needed to do to gift this was add some coloured pins, some Stampin' Up! buttons in co-ordinating colours and some ribbon and it was finished. A great gift idea and what better way to gift than to share Stampin' Up! product with friends and family too! 

The hearts were decorations kindly made for me by Catherine Evans, a great, super talented SU demonstrator.  She made a gorgeous garland of these hearts of her own which you can and go see here.  I loved her crochet flowers, as seen on the green heart, but unfortunately crochet is not listed as one of my talents so I made my own centre for the red heart from Crochet Trim and the Scalloped Tulle Ribbon in Crumb Cake from the Autumn/Winter Catalogue.  I finished the red centre with the gorgeous Designer Brushed Bronze buttons (127833) and some linen thread.

My next project, after my first pin cushion was the Beau Chateau Pin Cushion jar.  I love the Beau

Chateau fabric design, as devoted followers of my blog will know. 

 

 This time I decorated the jar using Paper Daisies (119243).  I dyed the daisies using the ink pad refills in Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette and Bashful Blue - they turned out even better than I thought! I could not believe how easy it is, just a couple of drops with some water, submerge the daisies and then dry them off.  I secured the layers of the flowers with a metallic brad and manipulated them before completely dry and then added a pearl over the brad centre.  These are gorgeous and I will definitely be using them on more projects now! 

The flower wreath in the picture was a copy from the catalogue design on page 71 of the annual catalogue.  Again using the Fun Flowers die for the Big Shot.  One of the reasons you have to have the Big Shot is all of the materials you can cut with it, fabric and felt, included.  I sourced some felt elsewhere to match the colours of the fabric and used the Very Vanilla Seam Binding ribbon (120999) from SU to decorate and create the hanging loop. 

Remember the following products from these projects are only available in the Autumn/Winter catalogue and can only be ordered until the end of THIS THURSDAY, 31st January:

Candlelight Christmas Designer Fabric 126905 £8.95
Scalloped Tulle Ribbon - Crumb Cake  127840 £6.25
Designer Buttons - Brushed Bronze       127833 £6.25

To place an order, booking or find out more about these techniques, email me at craftyinkbuds@sky.com

Fluttering Butterflies

I have just had the most exciting day with the rest of my upline at a team training day today and feel totally inspired by the creations of many that I have seen.  I have also been busy crafting leading up to today, but just haven't seem to have got round to posting here the cards and items which have been finding their way in my moments of craftiness.  So now I have prepared you to expect a flurry of posts as I catch up the next couple of weeks.

The first cards I want to share with you are a collection of birthday cards.  I especially love the way the Very Vintage stamped wheel provides a lovely subtle background on the crumb cake card stock (my crumb cake ink pad needed a little refill so the colour was a little more 'faded' than I intended). 

The butterflies on both cards are cut and embossed with the big shot embosslit 'Beautiful Wings' and the background very vanilla is embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper emboss folder which I just cannot get enough of at the moment!

I have added pearls and buttons and extra embellishments here as I could not help myself once I started getting creative with these two cards.  The antique brads compimented the whisper white craft I used for the faux stitiched effect (using the piercing tool).  Of course there was daubing involved with crumb cake too - I think my daubers are nearly all worn out with the amount I have been using this technique!

Now I love the trinket keys on these cards, but before you fall in love with them too, they are not currently available as they were in the Spring Mini Catalogue which have finished.  Let's hope SU bring them back in the next catalogue though!

Don't forget to check back for my next flurry of posts......