Hello There Kitty...

Hey,

Happy Friday.

I hope you have all had a better week than me :( I have had a rotten cold, just coming out through the other side of it.

When I was in London I could not resist a little trip to one of my fave stores Paperchase... I try not to buy anything full price when I am there, as I really do not need any more stationery..

But when I saw this set of stamps on sale, I could not resist -

They are so simple and elegant.

I wanted to make a little card for my parents and I thought this set would be great for them.

I coloured the image using Zigs and then die-cut it out using an MFT stitched oval die. The sentiment is by Simon Says Stamp and is from the Sketchy Banner Greetings set - which has two sketchy banner dies - I don't think they do the stamps anymore.

I love these mini kraft card blanks and JT buys them for me, as I can't get them in the US.

Cute card to say thanks for fun times.

Have a great weekend, I am doing the Stuytown flea market tomorrow - I'm at pitch 271, if you want to come and say hi ;)

Cx

Saying goodbye and thank you...

So it's my last day at work today. It's been hard work for 7 months, but I've met some nice people. So to say thank you, I decided to give people a calendar.

I wanted to wrap them nicely and write a little note.

The main photo is of the calendars with a note, wrapped and embellished.

I am very pleased with these. I used plain kraft paper sheets from Paperchase, and wrapped them around the calendar and secured with tape, making a kind of pouch. I then cut out these journaling cards to use for writing notes.

But I felt they didn't stand out against the paper enough so, I mounted them onto slightly bigger pieces of paper and I used scraps from the Amy Tangerine paper set..again! Here's a photo, but I had to mask it off, so you can't see the journaling cards, as I was dumbo and wrote on them before taking the photos - doh!

The butterflies, were cut using my shiny new Xcut butterfly dies - yes lots of new treats for me, but with the move, no clothes, no bags, no nothing..but the craft boxes have space, so if it can fit in then I can buy it!! Whoo hoo!! I used scraps of paper and co-ordinating Candi's, I think it all looks a bit shabby chic?

Here is one last close-up photo of the blue butterflies, you can just see some of the journaling paper peeking out.

So I guess this is me saying goodbye and thanks..

Cx

Starting to get my romance on...

Well, not really :) but I have started making Valentine's Day cards for our website.

I'm not a big Valentine's Day fan, but I love working with hearts so...This year I thought I would try and create some more contemporary cards.

The main photo today is of one of 4 designs I have been playing with. This one is the most time consuming, as you have to hand glue the back of the die-cut Love Birds and it is muy tedious! But on the other hand it is is so simply beautiful, I want to send one to myself so I can frame it (weird or no?)

You can also see my 'drying rack' in this photo - it's a piece of string, hung between the shelves and I drape cards across it that need to dry. This bad boy also works with pegs and can hold 20 cards - sweet. I have 2 of them.

Anyway I digress..here are the other 3 designs, I made 2 of them a couple of weeks ago and I am still happy with them - I try and start 'seasonal' cards early, makes it less stressful.

The card below has a bit of a manly feel to it I think. The Union Jack stamp is from Paperchase and I've always been a bit confused as to where I should use it. Perfect use methinks.

Valentine's Day - Spots and Hearts

Valentine's Day - Lots of Hearts

The card above is a bit of a twist on the more traditional lots of red and hearts. I went for a lot of red, but offset by a fair amount of white. The felt glittery heart mounted on the scalloped heart helps to keep it contemporary, as does the lack of 'Happy Valentine's Day'. I think it's nice to leave the sentiment off when you know the recipient will know why they are receiving the card.

The final card below is a bit of a twist on the main photo - portrait and using a pair of scalloped hearts, with one embossed with spots. This card is really quite classy and once again I want to keep one..

Grey Scalloped Hearts

A red version

What do you think?

Cx