Another Chocolate Box

Back today with the bag/box that I made to match the card I showed you yesterday. It is made with Naturals White cardstock, stamps from Gorgeous Grunge in Raspberry Ripple and decorated with a flower made from Flower Shop and Petite Petals cut with co-ordinating punches,. The closure for the top is a piece of card cut with one of the Labels Collection Framelits, stamped and tied with a piece of Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin Ribbon. The box holds a bag of continental chocolates.

That's all for today but I'll be back soon

Margaret x

Variation on a Theme

If you saw my post on Sunday then you will see that today's card is a variation on that. I loved the layout of the card when I saw a similar one showcased by Aida (here) so I decided to try it with a flower rather than a butterfly and, I have to say, I was really pleased with the result.
As with Sunday's card I used Gorgeous Grunge but this time stamping in Raspberry Ripple and added a flower stamped with stamps from Flower Shop and Petite Petals, both cut out with their respective punches and the sentiment is from Perfectly Penned. A large basic pearl was added to the centre of the flower.
As usual I have made a matching box to go with this card which I will show you tomorrow. Please pop back and take a look :0)

Margaret x

 

Chocolate Box

Yesterday I showed you a card which I had CASE'd from a fellow team member, Aida, and I promised I would be back today to show you the matching box I made to go with it. Aida kindly said I could share her design with you which is posted on her Facebook page and can be found here.      

The box I have made is different to Aida's as I wanted it to hold a few yummy chocolates - it is approx 5" tall x 2" square. Made with the same supplies as yesterday's card, those being Naturals White cardstock, Gorgeous Grunge stamps, Elegant Butterfly punch and a piece of Crochet Trim and Elegant Eggplant Ribbon. The top of the box was shaped using the Scallop Tag Topper Punch.

I have also made a variation on this design so, if you would like to see it, then do pop back tomorrow :0)


I am back at school today after the half term break - does anyone else remember when school holidays seemed to last for an eternity? Now they seem to go in a flash. Oh well just another sign of old age I suppose!!

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

My Simples Sunday card today is one I've unashamedly CASE'd from a fellow team member, Aida Dominguez VD Veeken. Aida is a Stampin'Up! demonstrator in the Netherlands and posted her version of the card on our team's Facebook page and I thought it was simply stunning - definitely my style of card! I have emailed Aida to ask if I can share her Facebook page with you but, as yet, I've not heard back from her so until I do I will just have to say a big thank you to her for sharing her gorgeous design.
I used Naturals White cardstock, two stamps from Gorgeous Grunge, a sentiment from Express Yourself cut with the Modern Label Punch and the Elegant Butterfly Punch. Other than a few Basic Rhinestones that's it - Simples!
Please pop back tomorrow to see the matching box and, hopefully, I will have heard from Aida and  be able to direct you to her :0)   **Edited to add Aida's link - click here

Margaret x

Something a little different

Well the LIM challenge today, to use metal, is definitely outside my comfort zone! I racked my brains for this challenge - should I use brads, heat embossing, some sort of charm - but none of these really inspired me. Then I suddenly remembered that a while back I'd bought a sheet of thin metal (which actually didn't work for the project I needed it for!) so I hunted that down and came up with this card. Being a Teaching Assistant in Science means that whenever I think of mixing metal with papercrafting I immediately think of magnets so this is where my 'something a little different' comes in - I made the 'Mr & Mrs' panel in the centre into a fridge magnet!! (see picture bottom right - stuck on my conservatory heater)
I used framelits from Apothecary Accents to cut out the aperture and also the 'Mr & Mrs' which had been stamped, with a now retired stamp, in Silver Encore ink. A piece of metal was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots folder and positioned behind the aperture panel. The congratulations banner was stamped with an Itty Bitty Banners sentiment and cut with the co-ordinating framelit and the metal flowers punched with an Itty Bitty Shapes punch. A few leaves from the Bird Builder punch and some Basic Rhinestones were added to finish the card.
The fridge magnet was made by cutting several shapes from fairly stiff card then glued together to give a much sturdier panel.

Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon

Margaret x

Treat Box

I've done enough for the men this week so have something really feminine to show you today - a little treat box. This came about when I was doing some instructions for another box which we will be making at a class next week and, whilst checking them over, this idea popped into my head. Off I went into my craft room to give it a go and this is what I ended up with.

The box measures approx 2" wide and 5" high so is just the right size for a few sweet treats. I used Wisteria Wonder cardstock and stamped all over using the En Francais background stamp. The fancy top is, of course, done with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch (one of my new favourite tools!!). The flowers are stamped with images from Petite Petals, punched with the co-ordinating punch. I added a few Pistachio Pudding leaves punched with the Bird Builder punch.

I hope you like it and if you would like to buy any of the products used (or any others for that matter) please don't hesitate to get in touch - contact details on tab at the top.

Thanks for stopping by today

 

Margaret x

Those Men Again!!

Hello and here I am back with yet another 'male' card and my fifth and last entry to the LIM challenge!! I am showing you two cards today because I started off making the card shown below with the men in mind but, when I'd finished it, I actually thought it looked quite girly so I set to and changed the colours slightly and ended up with the one on the right which I think is a much more manly version.
Isn't it strange how a change of colour to exactly the same design can make so much difference?

 Another very simple card but, as I'm sure you realise by now, less is very much more in my world :0)
I started by stamping a 'splat' from Gorgeous Grunge (a stamp set I didn't like until I actually bought it and now can't stop using!) in Coastal Cabana and Crumb Cake (for the card above) and Real Red stamped off (for the card on the left) then added a strip of DSP from the Fresh Prints Stack - available in the Spring catalogue. The sentiment, from Express Yourself for the card above and Teeny Tiny Sentiments for the card on the left, was punched with the Large Oval Punch and matted onto a label cut with an Apothecary Accents framelit which had been sponged round the edge.

Thanks for visiting and I'll be back tomorrow with something girly!

Margaret x

And another!

Well my week seems to have been dominated by men - I hasten to add that I mean in my card making not my personal life :0) so here is another which will be my fourth entry into the LIM challenge this week (sorry if you're getting fed up with me Chrissie - only a couple more to go!!!)
This is another really easy card basically made with scraps. Can you tell what the the patterned shapes are? No it's not some fancy border punch - it's the punched out pieces from the Envelope Punch Board which you would normally throw in the bin, but not this time. I matted a piece of Whisper White onto Basic Black and glued a strip of Basic Black and Smoky Slate cardstock down one side, the 'punched pieces' were then positioned against the Smoky Slate, a sentiment added in Basic Black and a bit of stamping with an image from Gorgeous Grunge to finish the card. The panel was matted onto a plain white card blank - card done!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back tomorrow with the last in the current series of

 'Cards for the Men' (I think!!)

Margaret x

Another one for the men!

Another one for the men and this week's LIM challenge. This one was inspired by a card made by my sister for Dad's birthday last week, I say inspired and not CASe'd because I made this from memory as I only saw the card for a short time but it made enough of an impression on me to be able to produce something similar!
 My sister's card was beautifully made in blue and silver but mine, as you can see, is in Old Olive and gold. The leaves are the Magnificent Maple stamp, which sadly is now retired, with one stamped in Old Olive and the other gold embossed - both fussy cut with paper snips. The 'splattering' in the background is a stamp from Gorgeous Grunge and the sentiment from the Hostess set, Express Yourself, which is also gold embossed.

Thanks for looking and I'll be back tomorrow with another masculine offering!

Margaret x

Simples Sunday meets LIM - Masculine

Once again the lovely ladies at LIM have inspired me with their challenge this week which is a Masculine card. So this week's Simples Sunday card is one for the men and is super easy!
The card blank is made from Early Espresso, matted with a panel of Very Vanilla. I stamped and punched the flags from Banner Blast and the co-ordinating punch - both freebies in the SAB promotion. These were fixed onto the card with dimensionals with a piece of Linen Thread placed behind. The sentiments, both inside and out, are from A Dozen Thoughts.

And that's it - told you it was super easy!

Thanks for stopping by and do pop back again this week to see more masculine cards

Margaret x

One for the Men!

I am always hearing complaints from people saying they find 'male' cards really hard to do so, last night, I had a play to see what I could come up with. Lo and behold when I logged into the LIM challenge blog this morning the theme for the week is 'Masculine' - spooky or what??
Unlike my usual hurried crafting on a Saturday morning all I had to do was take a photo and here it is.
I used the Banner punch, which is free in the SAB promotion, to punch out some flags from a piece of Smoky Slate cardstock and positioned this down one side of a card blank using dimensionals. The three Night of Navy flags were placed to the side of this, again using dimensionals, and a sentiment from the Hostess set, Express Yourself, was stamped in Night of Navy. The flags needed something just to finish the card off and, after a bit of pondering, I decided to use some of the small Basic Rhinestones - well who says men can't have a bit of bling :0)
I hope you have all survived last night's horrendous storm without too much damage. I thought I was going to wake up with my house around my ears but, thankfully, no damage this morning apart from a few pots blown over. Have a lovely weekend and stay safe.

Back soon

Margaret x

Mini Sandwich Box

Today I have a Mini Sandwich Box to show you, it measures just 10cm high x 4cm wide and is perfect for a few sweet treats!
I came across this on YouTube and it was designed by an Australian demo, Tanya Bell, who had a tutorial for sale on her blog so I just had to buy it. Tanya's blog can be found here.
For my box I used Real Red cardstock as I wanted to put a few of my Mum's favorite sweets in and the colour matches really well. Rather than using DSP to decorate the box I stamped a flower from Petite Petals all over and the 'tag' was made with a retired stamp, punched with a Scallop Circle and decorated with a stamp from Banner Blast punched with an Itty Bitty Shapes punch.
You may be able to see that the front panel of the box is perforated so you can tear it open - I did this with a handheld perforating tool but, if you are lucky enough to own the Stampin'Up! Rotary Trimmer attachment, you could use this and make the job easier :0) If you'd like to see the co-ordinating card I made to go with this please scroll down to the previous post

Thanks for visiting today

Margaret x