Bright and cheerful!

Hi, I made this card a while ago and every time I look at the photo it makes me smile! I grew up watching Sesame Street, so it was natural to try to copy the charcter's in my own way, of course! I made this card using Stampin' Up! punches and card. I think this would be great for children of all ages. My base card is DL size in landscape, I added a couple of thin strips of card to the top and bottom to match with the colours I was going to use for the characters. Each character starts with a scallop circle, I used various sized circles for the eyes, mouth and cookie. Big birds beak is made from the oval punch and I hand cut the yellow "feathers" for him. An easy but fun project that I am very pleased with, I hope you like it Dawn x

Mini Album

Hi, I have been wanting to put this little album on here for a while but I hadn't taken any photos of it so, yesterday I did. My daughter had a drum kit for Christmas and after the usual assembly and general practise I popped my head in her room along with my camera (yes, my family dread me lurking with my trusty camera). The colour of her room, clothes and drum kit was an explosion so I decided to print the photos in black and white and it went well with what I had in mind. I cut the pages using sizzix dies in basic black and rose red stampin' up! card and the covers from mount board, also with the dies. I stamped every page with small motifs and had a spider on every page (my daughter hates bugs but it kind of went with the slightly goth stage she was in). I added embellishments on each page, flowers, page pebbles etc. After stamping the front cover I added sparkle with a glitter spray, a metal word and joined all the pages with a purple book ring, I decided against ribbon on the ring as it doesn't really fit with my daughters style. I was really pleased with the over all effect but more importantly my daughter loved it, I'm not sure she would be so happy if she knew it was on here though!! Hope you like it to, thanks for looking, see you next time Dawn x

Punch party!

Hi, Thank you ladies for a lovely workshop last night. Last night it was a gathering of friends to craft rather than a formal workshop, well thats how it felt. We were quite a small group but lots of fun was had. The hostess saw a card I had made (the idea came from the lovely Hayley-so my thanks to her) whilst at a previous event and decided she would like a party based on that card. As you can see its a ballet dancer made from punches, everyone made their own interpretation of the card and here are the finished cards, well almost, some sentiments were left off as they were unsure who the lucky recipient would be. One card even managed to dance off during the photo shoot so has a picture all to herself. Big hugs to all that came and I hope to see you again soon x

Male themed card

I recently took part in a challenge with the lovely Hayley from Inkin Babes, the theme was to make a male themed card. I have never really timed myself when making cards or crafting generally and find I can easily loose a few hours without knowing. So, with this in mind and only having an hour I was definitely under pressure, that and being fairly rubbish on the computer and wondering how do I upload my photo, I realised I had to get moving. The Lovely as a tree stamp set came instantly to mind, so naturally I turned to old olive (one of my favourite's), chocolate chip and the new soft suede to help with the challenge. I decided to stamp my chosen tree in soft suede ink and then die cut around the image with a leaf shape, I inked each die cut with the same ink as well as old olive, the inspiration was flowing and I saw things appearing before my eyes, my card, in my head, had to be DL size so, therefore I would need three die cut trees, a simple mat and layer on the card base and some wonderful ribbon for the base and the trunks of the trees and I had almost finished. I added a small greeting from the tiny tags stamp set and punched three tags and hung them from linen thread and here it is. Oh and yes I did manage to upload it in time to enter the challenge, I must be getting better at the "technical" stuff. I am pleased with it and think it would make a lovely fathers day card with the appropriate greeting. I hope you like it too Dawn x

Something different!

Here I have a bracelet I made a little while ago, I thought I would share it with you as it shows how different crafts can overlap. I have seen in local shops and online the stretchy type bracelets that you can then hang your chosen charms on but, I didn't find exactly what I was looking for and so came the idea to make one myself. I bought a rather large supply of jump rings (approx 250 for this project) and set to joining them all together, I thread stretchy elastic through each link, in one way and then out the other so the links didn't just line up next to each other but formed a more random look. I was given a pmc (precious metal clay) kit for Christmas and this was my first charm that I made, first rolling the clay, then stamping into it, then cutting the circle, making the hole and waiting for it to dry before firing it, polishing it and attaching it to the bracelet. I used the swirl stamp from spotlight on Christmas stampin' up! set to make the pattern in the silver clay. I made a couple of further charms and added to the bracelet but, after wearing it once decided it was to much so went back to just the original charm. I think its great when you can find more than one job for a product and using stamps in this way opens up new doors within crafting. I am very pleased with the result for my first attempt, I hope you like it too. Dawn x

Rich Razzleberry & Melon Mamba

Here are two cards using the new colours from Stampin' Up! Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mamba. I'm not a pink girl myself but I know someone who is so, I often make cards using pink colours to show her, (so Kel these are for you) I do however love bright colours and rich razzleberry is bright and cheerful, I even love the name! They both use the simply said stamp set and the heart to heart punch. I hope you like them Dawn x

New colours!

Hope you're enjoying the bank holiday weekend.

Stampin' Up! are bringing us beautiful new colours! They are changing their existing colour palette, saying a fond farewell to lots of colours in order to make room for the new exciting colours, the changes are not until the new catalogue launch in October so, you have plenty of time to purchase any of your old favourites that are going. Here is a list of the retiring colours: pink passion, pixie pink, pale plum, orchid opulence, lovely lilac, lavendar lace, almost amethyst, bordering blue, brocade blue, ballet blue, brilliant blue, taken with teal, ruby red, cameo coral, blush blossom, creamy caramel, close to cocoa, glorious green, handsome hunter, sage shadow, mellow moss, green galore, gable green, barely banana, yoyo yellow, summer sun, apricot appeal, only orange, really rust and going gray. (I did say lots were going!)

Three of the brand new colours are available to order now, these are rich razzleberry, melon mambo and soft suede, they are available in ink, A4 card and 1/2" polka dot grossgrain ribbon although the ribbon is limited and will not be in the new catalogue, so if you like what you see, order it now before stocks are gone. There are also designer series papers-Cottage wall and printed window sheets to coordinate with the new colours. Anyone wishing to make an order or if local, would like to see Stampin' Up! products feel free to email me dawnstrickland20@sky.com

Now to my card today, its a square white card base with rich razzleberry polka dot ribbon along the side, the stamp set is bird on a branch from the mini, stamped on whisper white and layered onto rich razzleberry, cut using octagon nestabilities, I added rich razzleberry ink around the edge of the die cut and stamped the flowers with it, the bird and branch are stamped using basic gray, I added dazzling diamonds glitter to the flower centres but it doesn't show on the photo, hope you like it Dawn x