Project 69: Little Claire Stamps and Gradient Punches

Two sets of cards for you this week:

First up, gradient cards. For my birthday, my sister gave me a set of punches and some paint chips as I found some cool gradient cards on Pinterest and she saw my pins. I decided to do a mini square card featuring each set of punches and a gradient technique as I was so keen to use both.

For the leaves above I went lightest to darkest from left to right but in the future I might do it vertically.

For the stars I made a very simple comet shape and glittered the lightest star in the front. The greeting is from the Little Claire set, below.

Finally this flower card features a ribbon that I love as well as some glitter bling dots. I hand drew the stems.

Really like the simplicity of all of these, I will remember this in the future.

Next: Little Claire stamped cards. Another birthday inspired project! Claire gave me a subscription to the Little Claire club, where you get a set of stamps delivered every month. This is the company that made my owl Christmas stamp so I knew they were going to be amazing.

I fell in love with two stamps immediately. There are others which I'm sure will feature on this blog soon enough but these two are really special. The headline card is one of the cutest cards I have ever made, if I do say so myself. I colored in the hedgehog and then layered him over some gingham paper, added bakers' twine and some buttons. So twine, buttons and gingham, my triple threat of country-style crafting. 

I made this one an anniversary card that uses the tree stamp and I really love the detail. I topped it with some pure white candies that came in the little paper pack with the stamps. Definitely need to get me more of those!

Really happy with both sets, it was fun to approach a super simple with a more time-consuming card so I didn't get bored with either.

This weekend I did loads of stamping and scanning and helping Ham n Mule get ready for Mother's Day so there are more things to share but I'll space them out in the week.

Project 68: Patterned circle Mojo layout

I realised on my way into work this morning that I should have made a set of cards for my friend who's bridal shower is next weekend. My sister is MOH and she's been a lovely friend of our family for as long as I can remember. And brides always need thank you stationary!

I saw the layout on Mojo this week and thought it was a nice way to use some lovely papers that I had in mind for the bride to be. She's also a purple bride and I thought Latte stack would be really good for her style.

For each set I made sure there was one embossed circle, either diamonds or spots, and then the rest were the plainer versions of the papers in the set.

I ran out of double sided tape half way through, which was rather annoying, so most things are stuck on with glue. So old fashioned! Gosh. 2 years ago I didn't know those nifty little double-sided rollers even existed. How far we have come.

I added some candies, layered up some fabric flowers and chose some ribbons to match.

 Looking at the collection I think the set is a bit busy but I'm really pleased with the colors and I the bride will like them. Now I need to get them to the States in less than two weeks! Wishing good post karma will come my way...

Project 68: Foxy paper cutting

Earlier this year I joined the Women's Institute (kind of siilar to the Junior League in the US) and each month we meet up and have a demo or talk and then there are charity and fund raising events through the year. This week's craft was paper cut valentines.

Our demonstrator, Poppy Chancellor, came with a few samples for us to follow. She had this fox illustration and it totally crackd me up as I knew Claire would appreciate a little pick-me-up.

I've done some paper cutting in the past but using the fox illustration from Poppy made it a lot easier. She helped with the letter as well, which was a challenge, which is why it's not very sraight. Proves I made it!

As Claire got it on Friday I was able to post it - I was keen to show it off all week. Crafts like this will hopefully help shake the dowdy, stuffy image of the Wi and show it  is a bit saucier than people give it credit for!

Project 67 Update

Just a quick update on the finished project since the weekend. I brought home the tray and straw-base from the office (we got a free hamper of goodies - I love my clients) and with two new additions (see below) we have the finished product.

Yes these messages may be the most hilarious of them all. ("Why two non candy things?" you ask? They were in the hamper from work. Yep, pawning off free stuff as if it came from the heart. Nothing else says true love.)

It looks cute all together - can't wait until tomorrow so he sees how ridiculous this is.

Project 67: Candy-messages for Valentine's Day

Pinterest gives me great inspiration and this Valentines’ day I wanted to do something a bit silly and fun and found the perfect post. 

O has a massive sweet tooth and it’s well-known that he would pause too long if asked to choose between me and candy. I found this post and this post and thought, perfect, job done.

I went to a store and got as many candy bars as I could that I thought I could tie into an overly sentimental and sappy saying. The example on Pinterest are American so I had to improvise a bit.

First I made the tags. I cut the scallop tags with the new die cutter and used a star punch from my sister (it was my birthday in the week)  so I could tie a ribbon through it.

Each message was written out and embellished with something a bit cute and cheerful – it’s supposed to be over the top after all! Tape and glitter glue got used quite a lot which was fun as I don't always play them up on cards.

The one I like the most is the little rainbow bag made of layered Skittles and gold-wrapped Rolos. The Rolos aren’t individually wrapped here in the UK so I kept them in pairs which wasn’t ideal but never mind. The bags are from my last pack of 10 left over from the wedding over 2 years ago. Still getting use out of the bits and pieces left over!  

Here are a few close ups of the tags, I think they’re a bit silly but that was the point. I had wanted to do more of the individual stamped ones (like the button bear one – an inside joke, not a sickeningly sweet pet name) but I was nervous to do so many so stuck to fine-tip pens and markers. 

I tried to tie the ribbons into either the candy or message as much as possible. Turns out I own a lot of ribbon. 

I'm going to display everything on a tray, I have a base from a hamper we got at work so I'm going to bring that home in the week.

I am due a post using all of the fun stuff from my birthday bounty so watch this space. Happy Valentine’s day!

Project 66: Little bit of lime green

Earlier this year I found myself making a lot of green cards, which isn't a color in my top 5. It may not even be in my top 10. But here we all are and I seem to have made more green cards without really thinking about it!

The headline card followed a layout similar to this one I found on Pinterest. I mixed it up slightly to work with the greeting and ribbon that I had. The scattered gem effect is really nice against the busy paper. I'll be doing that again.

Next I used the scraps from the headline card against an embossed background. I also used a lattice-style ribbon that I have had for at least 2 years and I don't think ever used. Score. Candies at the bottoms to balance the layout a bit.

The next two used pattern cards, which I used to use a lot in early crafting days but I don't use as often any more. Maybe I'm more adventurous, maybe I forgot I had them until today. One of the two.

Because the papers were so busy I kept them simple and just used an embossed thank you for each of them. Big flower and 2 types of sticky ribbon on one, normal ribbon and candies on the other.

Nice and simple. It actually is pretty easy being green.

Project 65: Black and White Art Deco

My friend Jules is getting married and is having an art deco theme with gold and silver accents. I was in a craft shop this week and found some papers that were perfect for making her a little set of thank you cards inspired by her wedding theme.

All of the cards used a black base (she's getting a gel pen as well so she can actually write in them) feature a small bit of glitter glue as a feature and some striped candies in white, grey or black. 

The headline card uses one of my favorite papers layered on top of some busy floral papers. I added to the layers with raised foam to give it more depth. Simple punched greeting and some dark grey candies. 

The next card uses a silhouette paper with a lattice cut of silver paper, pre-tied bow and white and silver candies. Since taking this photo I've evened out the spacing of the candies.

This is the only horizontal card in the set and used the same paper as the card above.   I used lacy tape and ribbon to split up the paper over a black and white floral pattern. The greeting here was a random sale bin purchase from my local craft store and usually it's a challenge to use but really worked in this set.

Next is a card that really simply layers grey and black papers with the image. I've scallop-punched the corner to give it some texture and added a few flowers for balance.

Finally this card used the same scallop punch in the corner as well as the full border punch in silver. I made the greeting black so it would stand out from the textured grey background. I added the spotted ribbon as well to make it a bit cute and hide the seam between the two papers.

These will go in the post tomorrow so hopefully Jules will get them soon! x