Kristina's Color Inspiration #32

I've been a little quiet of late with blogging due to mass production for Jake's school Christmas Fair next week. Snowman poop is in full flow (ahem!) and the bags of Christmas Tree decs are filling my room up daily. I've run out of 'poop' at the moment so I shall be scouring the county for more over the weekend.

Anyway, a little late but I made it for Kristina's Color Inspiration #32. I've had to take the photo indoors with no daylight at all and the embossing looks gold, but I can assure you it's actually silver. No matter what I did with the White Balance I just couldn't get it to look like it actually is and I'm not that good with PSE - I just can't get my head round it. Still, here's this weeks card, a little plain and much better in real life but hey ho - or should that be Ho! Ho! as we are in countdown mode for Christmas?!?! LOL

Thanks for looking.....

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Kristina's Color Inspiration #31

I really enjoy doing Kristina's challenge each week, the colours she picks are always such a great mix. I'd like to think I have an eye for colour myself but it's so much easier to design a card when the colour combo is done for you, I guess that's why I like doing them. Last weeks didn't get uploaded in time for the deadline as the weather was pretty rubbish and I couldn't get a decent photo being it was in fairly muted colours. Still, here's this weeks... back to the brighter colours and I DO, *do bright* so I don't find it too difficult.

It's a tri-fold card (I think that's what they call them) and I've used the gorgeous large swirly stamp from 'Baroque Motifs' in versamark on the inside, and the white embossed sentiment from 'A Bit of Birthday Cheer' on the front. I'm back to using the felt 'Accents & Elements' with non SU! brads again....eek! The brads by the way are made by Papermania and you can find the small one's here and the larger one here.

Everything else I've made this week is for either a workshop on Thursday or for Jake's school Christmas Fair which isn't until the 5th December, but time is flying and I know it'll be here before I know it. I did think I was pretty organised but I've just realised I've forgotten to make my own cards to send....oops! I will make a start next week, along with 30 bags of Snowman Poop....oh and some teachers gifts... OH CRUMBS! I'd better get cracking......!!!

Be back soon,

Jo :)

Silent Night

On Tuesday I popped over to Jen's with Val & Jane who are also Demonstrators - hi girls! We made this little gift card holder... isn't it cute? Jen also gave us some instructions out how to make a little box that's big enough to hold eight of the scalloped chocolate patties (Elizabeth Shaw chocs to us in the UK). The lid is made of 250 micron acetate (I think that what it is anyway) but next time I shall use some thinner stuff as it was quite hard to score, so off to Staples tomorrow... Wednesday afternoon I had an order delivered with some Heat & Stick in it, so I used it to stamp the snowflakes on the scalloped circles. It's not that clear on blogger, but in real life the snowflakes are really sparkly. Basically the heat & stick is like clear embossing powder except it stays tacky for longer once it's melted. This is great for adding Dazzling Diamonds to your images and for me it's a must at Christmas. Once you put the dazzling diamonds on and with a quick blast of the heat gun, the glitter is set - very clever stuff! For this box I used Night of Navy, Bashful Blue and Whisper White Cardstock, along with a Ballet Blue Ink pad. The dotted paper on the belly band is from the new Bashful Blue Designer Series Papers and the stamped snowflakes are from Season of Joy. Something else I received in my delivery was the Silent Night Stamp Set. I fell in love with this when I was at the Ringwood Show with Jen. She did some amazing samples - this one I've lifted (CASED) but I know she won't mind. If you have a look at this post here and click on the main photo, amongst the many of Jen's fabulous creations hopefully you can spot some of the Silent Night ones. Again blogger doesn't seem to give as crisp an image as it does on the 'puter but I have added some dazzling diamonds to the trees. It's such an easy and beautiful stamp set - I love it! There is a sentiment in the set which I've stamped on the inside - sorry I didn't show a photo but you can find it on page 22 of the Idea Book & Catalogue. Have a great weekend! Jo :)

Maze Book with 'I Wish' Scrappin' Kit

I'm actually a scrapbooker more than a cardmaker even though cardmaking was where I started five years ago. So today I thought I'd show you that Stampin'Up! is not just cardmaking and they also have some very beautiful scrappin' kits. Over at In Love With Stamping (ILWS) Jo (scrapbookparty) posted that she'd made a maze book using the 'I Wish' scrappin'kit. I haven't made a maze book in simply ages so after seeing hers (which is beautiful) I had a go. From the kit I used 1 piece of 12x12 cardstock, 1 12x12 double sided patterend paper, and some of the die cut stickers. In fact I hardly used any of the kit to make it. Like Jo's I made little slots with the circle punch so I could add tags with journalling on ,and also punched holes for a 3D effect as you flick through the book. The cover and belly band is a very neat idea too protecting and keeping everything together.

This Maze Book would make a great Christmas Gift for grandparents, but this one I'm keeping for myself.

Cheers!

Jo :)

Thanks

I don't know about you but the one card I send alot of is a Thank You. It only has to be a little card of acknowledgement, but it's just nice....

I recently bought a few clear pillow boxes after seeing them on several US blogs which I thought would be a lovely gift to go with a card. I've sourced some from a wedding favour company and thought I'd have a go at decorating. This was my first attempt. I would have to say if you are going to have a go, cardstock is a little too thick to wrap around the pillow box - I've had to resort to super glue to seal it down...! Not really, but designer papers would do a much better job. I'm going to make some christmassy ones next.....

Scallop overload...

It's Kristina's Colour Inspiration again and look at those colours... aren't they fab?! I like bright colours and unusual mixes too, so I whisked this scalloped beauty up last night. The card shape was actually made using my Nestabilities which I've had for yonks and really don't use as much as I should. And as I can't seem to stop using scallops on everything I went with the flow and scalloped a white border strip along with a punched scallop circle. Even the tiny flowers have that *scallopy* look about them. I'm still out of pumpkin pie so I found a print from the Haiku Designer Series Papers which saved me from disaster, and the only colour I didn't have was Pacific Point. Sadly no In Colours for us in the UK, maybe one day... instead I used Tempting Turquiose. The stamp set was 'Wow Flowers' and the flower centres are Kaiser Rhinestones (oops! non SU! again).

Hope you like.

Tfl,

Jo :)

The Ringwood Craft Show

Yesterday was the Ringwood Craft Show and Jenny had a stand there so I offered my services and went along for most of the day. If you've seen Jenny's blog you will know from all her wonderful creations how very talented she is, and yesterday she didn't disappoint. The stand was full of her gorgeous creations and very busy. Jenny had her head down all day demo'ing lots of techniques and I helped, where I could, with answering question and providing information. I was wearing my Hilda Ogden Tabard! That's what my husband said anyway. It's the 20th Birthday Stampin'Up! Pinny that Demonstrators have been given as part of the SU! celebrations. I have to say I wasn't sure at first but once I got chatting to lots of people, I soon forgot I was wearing it, and at least the pockets were handy for business cards. (I'll model it and show a piccie real soon.) It was a fantastic show and I loved talking to so many lovely people. Thank you to everyone that came and said hello. There was such a buzz around the stand and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. So if you are thinking of being a Hostess for a workshop, remember (I'm sure I would of said) for every order total of £150, from now until the end of December you'll qualify for not just one, but TWO FREE sets as well as the £15 to spend. If you would like to book a workshop, please contact Jenny at jennymoors@aol.com or myself at jodumbleton@aol.co.uk I'll be back with some more creations real soon - got that pesky thing called work to do for a few days - Pfff! TTFN. Jo :)