Limited Edition

I just had too get this die and stamp set from concord and 9th for my stanley loving friend, not sure how much use it will get after this though lol.

Maybe i should make a few and sell it lol.

Whiskey Business

Stampin Up so know how to make images that evoke an emotion/feeling and this one makes me want to taste the whiskey lol.

I have made this card a few times as it was done in a call and when I showed my friends one of them said it was perfect for her hubbie so of course I made him one too lol

Not my Usual Stamps Version 5

The last of the 8 year old cards for this year and I do like the colours on this one. Whenever I make the last one I always feel sad but I need to remember its only a few months and they will all start turning 9 lol. OMG what on earth am I going to do for that lol.

Merry Christmas Version 2

This is the second set of cards and in these colour combos I made a lot. Every year I look for a nice flat design that I can make and send to my friends and family and this year this was it.

The main thing I changed apart from more traditional colours was the snowflake colour, I wanted them to blend into the background more and this grey worked perfectly.

Ingredients

Sentiment: Merry Christmas from crafters Companion

Snowflake stencil: gift from a friend last year

Inks: Wild Cherry from MFT, Cottage Ivy from memento and Limestone from Altenew

Card: white and colours from Michaels 65lb recollections range.

Dies Blueprints 30 from MFT

Yellow Flowers

This was the last colour scheme for this stencil, well on this occasion anyway lol. Once my new altenew inks arrive I am sure there will be more.

I did change the grey colours for brown but that was the only thing different.

Ingredients

Image: Hill Blossom Layered Stencil from Altenew

Sentiment: think big favourites 20 from Papertrey Ink

Inks - 

Green - Frayed Leaf and forest glades from the green fields cube set from Altenew

Yellow - Citrus Burst, Fresh Lemon and Honey Drizzle from the Pocketful of Sunshine cube set from Altenew

Brown - Rich Cocoa from Memento

Dies: A2 stitched rectangle stax from MFT

Card: Bright Buttercup from Papertrey Ink

Snowflake Embossing

One of my friends attended the Taylored Expressions Stamp Joy online event and they showed their creations during a zoom call, I was really taken with one of the designs and decided if I could make something similar with supplies I already had and this is the result.

Summer Sky Memento

Mint to Be Catherine Pooler

Speckled Egg Distress Oxide

Ingredients

Embossing folder: sizzix

Dies: Dovecraft

Sentiment: free from simply cards and papercraft designed by Altenew

Card: silver from snippets and glitter from The Works

Gems: from papermania

Splat Version 4

Yet another image from the pile and another splat card lol. I went with a different look and feel this time and only used one colour of ink and placed the stencil off-centre.

Ingredients
Image: big present from Lili of the Valley
Sentiment: clearly besotted
Ink: Summer sky from memento
Dies: blueprints 31 from MFT

Rainbow Cupcakes

I was on a call with some crafty friends and I decided to stamp a cupcake to see what the layers would look like, I was going to just stamp one but as I had it set up in my misti I went for a rainbow.

The altenew inks made light work of the majority of the colours but I had to get creative with the colours I don't have a set for. I used my ink swatches and realised that they are woefully out of date and need a sort out but I still managed to get colours I am happy with.

Once they were all stamped I hand cut them and realised there were too many for a normal A2 so I went with the current trend and made a slimline card. I have to say I enjoyed this style and I think I might have to invest in a set of slimline dies.

Ingredients
Image and Sentiment : Layered Cupcake from Gina Marie Designs
Stencil: Sprinkles from Gina Marie Designs

Colours
Red - Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red and Grapevine all from Altenew
Orange - Summer Sunrise, orange zest, canyon clay and terracottaa tile all Papertrey Ink
Yellow - Citrus burst, Fresh Lemon, Maple Yellow, Honey Drizzle all from Altenew
Green -  Bamboo, Parrot, Olive and Moss all from Altenew
Aqua - Mountain Mist, Volcano Lake, Lagoon and Emerald all from Altenew
Blue - Memento Summer sky, papertrey ink blueberry sky and elegant evening and MFT nightshift blue
Purple - Wisteria, Hydrangea, Ultraviolet and Andromeda all from Altenew
Grey - Limestone, Silver Stone, Industrial Diamond and Pure Graphite all from Altenew
Brown - Sand Dune, Rocky Shore, Mocha and Expresso all from Altenew

Gingerbread Cookies version 4

Final version of the cookies for now and one that was suggested by my friend Kathleen, she said try Hot Pink so I did lol.

If i had to chose my favourite it would be the aqua from yesterday but the one I made the most of was the red one.

Ingredients
Sentiment : “christmas pageant” neat and tangled
Dies: blueprints 20 and 29 from MFT
Background:  "jolly gingerbread" layering background stamp from crafters companion
Inks : peanut brittle, rich cocoa both from memento and razzleberry from MFT and mint macaron from Stampin Up
Card: mint macaron from Stampin Up and raspberry fizz from Papertrey ink

Gingerbread Cookies version 3

So these colours were inspired by a paper pack favourite of mine and its definitely a colour scheme I liked.

I have made more than 60 of this design in various colour schemes and as I'm writing this post I want to make more, that to me is a sign of a good stamp set.

Ingredients
Sentiment : “christmas pageant” neat and tangled
Dies: blueprints 20 and 29 from MFT
Background:  "jolly gingerbread" layering background stamp from crafters companion
Inks : peanut brittle, rich cocoa both from memento, blue raspberry and grape jelly both from MFT
Card: Grape jelly and blue raspberry both from MFT

Gingerbread Cookies version 2

After making several batches of red and green I wanted to try other colours so I went with these two, now I liked them but not as much as other colours I tried so I only made these two.

I will say that now I see them on screen I wish I had made more lol.

Ingredients
Sentiment : “christmas pageant” neat and tangled
Dies: blueprints 20 and 29 from MFT
Background:  "jolly gingerbread" layering background stamp from crafters companion
Inks : peanut brittle, rich cocoa, danube blue and bamboo leaves all from memento and
Card: Navy from Limetree crafts and sour apple from MFT

Gingerbread Cookies Version 1

I recently took a trip to the crafters companion store in Evesham, I saw this set there and fell for it instantly, however I make A2 sized cards and this was sized for UK A6 so I wasn't sure it would work. I decided against buying it and regretted it so much I ordered it once I got home lol.

I am so glad I did as well as this has been my goto design for this christmas season. Its flat enough to post and just changing the colour of the icing changes the whole look.

I started with traditional colours but I did make some other colour choices as well, which I will show on further posts.

Ingredients
Sentiment : “christmas pageant” neat and tangled
Dies: blueprints 20 and 29 from MFT
Background:  "jolly gingerbread" layering background stamp from crafters companion
Inks : peanut brittle, rich cocoa, cottage ivy, ladybug and rhubarb stalk all from memento
Card: Cranberry, red and green all from Recollections at Michaels

Drinks Trolley Beer Glasses

Third and final for now card in the Drinks Trolley Collection from Craftstash. I enjoyed making these and like the shoes and lady ones I made earlier this year they have helped immensely with the stress and made card making fun again.

I speak to lots of people who make cards and never send them but everyone of my cards is made for someone, I make roughly 300 a year between birthday, christmas and new home, new baby, congratulations. I think next year I am going to try the multiple method often as it certainly helps as I get more time to play.

Ingredients
Image "time for a beer" Apple Blossom
Sentiment: "" Simon Says Stamp. memento bermuda bay ink

Copics
Glasses - E53, 51, 50, YR23, 24, 27
Background - B14, 12

Cheers for Beer

Last year when I bought this stamp set I made a few cards, the person I wanted to make one for though had already had their birthday so when their big birthday was looming near I decided to break out the set yet again.

Last year I made the backgrounds using the MFT plaid builder stamp set and I was going to do the same again when I thought I don't use my stencils enough so out they came and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Ingredients
Image: "craft beer" Papertrey ink, stamped in "potters clay" memento ink
Sentiment: "basic numbers" Clearly besotted
Dies: Blueprints 15 from MFT and "simple stitched hillside borders" Lawn fawn
Card: "midnight muse" Stampin up and "grout gray" MFT
Stencil - "stars" heidi swap, with potters clay (memento) and Enchanted evening (pti) inks
Dots - Teresa collins, studio g and Papermania

Who let the beer out

This card might look kind of familiar and you would be right as I made a few like it earlier this year.

I've used my trusty plaid builder from mft again, this makes this background so much fun and so quick to make, I watched the papertrey plaid builder video recently and it operates completely differently to the mft one so I think I might need that too, obsessed me, no never lol. This time though I started with a coloured card base and stamped the designs in both directions and I like the result.
The diagonal was cut after I had stamped the entire panel so there is enough left to make another card. I wasn't going to stamp the bottom grey piece but it looked too plain so I added a simple grid pattern.

Ingredients
Image: craft beer from paper trey ink, stamped in "potters clay" memento dew drop
Sentiment: craft beer from papertrey ink
Card: grout Gray and steel grey both mft
Inks: grout Gray, steel grey both mft and enchanted evening from Papertrey ink
Dies: blueprints 15 and basic stitched borders both MFT
Backgrounds: plaid builder and grid both mft
Dots: white - recollections from Michaels, grey - Teresa collins and blue - Denim from Papermania

New Job James

Its been a while since I've created a new job card, in fact I don't think I've used this image in about three years for guy cards though its still one of my favourites. I had a bit of a virus when I made this card and so its fairly clean and simple design but I still think thats best for guy cards.

At the MFT retreat in May, Barbara showed us a technique using the harlequin stencil and Ive recreated it here, you simple use the stencil as normal in one colour then once you have finished you place the stencil back over your project just this time the holes are in-between the ones from last time and fill in again. it sounds more complicated than it is and Barbara has a video showing it which will probably make more sense.

Ingredients
Image: "work James" digistamp boutique
Paper: harlequin stencil from mft and "summer sky" memento ink and "steel blue" ink from mft on a "smoky slate" card base
Card: "basic grey" Stampin up
Dies: zig zag square and square stax from mft and xxl stitched square crealies
Brad: Eyelet Outlet

Copics
Skin - E000, 00, 11
Hair - C7, 5, 3
Suit - N7, 5, 4
Shirt - B21. 23
Tie - N2, 1, B23
Case - E77, 74
Ground  - W3, 1

Beer rhymes with Cheer

I ordered this set as soon as it was released as I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for. As always though life and other things have gotten in the way and I've only just used it.

The beer is stamped in peanut brittle memento ink and it took three attempts to get even coverage, thank goodness for my Misti. I might try darker colours for a more beer like look or kraft or even dark brown/black for a stout, the possibilities are endless and I hope I get lots of uses out of it.

I really enjoyed stamping the background in plaid, I bought grid paper and have a misti so not sure why I just winged it but it looks ok.

Ingredients
Image: "craft beer" papertrey ink stamped with peanut brittle memento ink
Sentiment : same set as above stamped with simply chartreuse and enchanted evening from papertrey ink
Paper: plaid builder from mft stamped with simply chartreuse and enchanted evening from papertrey ink
Card: simply chartreuse and enchanted evening from papertrey ink
Dies: blueprints 1 and basic edges both Mft

Basketball Jacket

This was a must have die from last year that has been used ONCE before, I think if I never buy another thing I still wont use every item I have in two lifetimes lol. This idea just sort of evolved and is nothing like the card I set out to make but I think it works. I have left off the sentiment but I have left space at the bottom for it intentionally.

Ingredients
Dies: Zipper, basketball, blueprint 15 all from MFT, polka dot parade numbers from Papertrey ink
Card: "pacific blue" and "basic grey" both Stampin up, "canyon clay" from Papertrey Ink and Michaels white 110lb
Background: "canvas" impression obsession stamp, inked with "bahama blue" from memento.

MFT Jersey

This card sort of evolved all on its own, I wanted to make a jersey for my cousin and I knew the colours I wanted but finding a background to match the very bright green was impossible so  I made my own. I'm pleased with how it ended up but I think if I had my time over I would change a few
things.

I cut the jersey twice once in real red and once in white and coloured the green with my copics and pieced it all together. I wanted the jersey to be the main element on the card and the background was supposed to be just that but it did end up slightly more prominent than I wanted. I tried placing the circles randomly but that just isn't me so I devised a pattern and stuck to that, once the other elements were adhered it isn't as easy to see the pattern anyway and it looks more random.

Ingredients
Image: "jersey" by MFT
Dies: "circle" cover plate Papertrey Ink, jersey and pierced flags tax both MFT
Card: Recollections 110lb white and stamping up "real red"
Ink: "pure poppy" papertrey ink and "" memento
Stamps: "boy basics - game on" and "boy basics - simple circles" both Papertrey Ink
Sentiment: "friend request" MFT
Copics: YG06, 07

Hanging Around Set 2

I bought the new blueprints 20 set from mft and decided to change up the previous hanging around cards I had made, I can't believe I have almost finished my christmas cards and I have only coloured a few images, Im hoping that next year I will get more time but that is probably famous last words lol.

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "teal zeal" memento dew drop
Dies: Blueprint 20  by mft stamps
Card: "island indigo" Stampin Up
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "simply chartreuse"papertrey ink
Dies: Blueprint 20  by mft stamps
Card: "simply chartreuse"papertrey ink
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger

Ingredients
Image: "hanging around" clearly besotted
Ink: "plum pudding"papertrey ink
Dies: Blueprint 20  by mft stamps
Card:  "plum pudding"papertrey ink
Embossing Powder: "Detail Silver" Ranger