Animal Stories... and Small Wonder

This cute card was one of the team Sale-A-Bration (SAB) swaps I received earlier in the week from Wendy H.  The designer paper is Tall Tales and its co-ordinating stamp set is Animal Stories.  The words "Small Wonder" are from the SAB Whimsical Words stamp set which you can earn for FREE if you spend $120 between 25 Jan-31 Mar.  A simple but very effective card, which I love!  Thanks Wendy :)

Elegant Birthday Card

Usually when I make a card I have someone specifically in mind ~ but today I was inspired by Dawn when I was blog hopping to make this with nobody in mind.  I have got another spate of birthdays coming up starting on the 23 January, so I'm sure to use it. I've changed my card a bit and used the Always in Bloom wheel stamped in mellow moss. The ribbon is mellow moss taffeta and the cardstock is Very Vanilla. The message is from the Sincere Salutations stamp set punched out with the oval punch and the scallop oval, which we are so lucky to still have available to us. Without a word of a lie, this card took less than 10 minutes to make. I wouldn't have been able to drive to a bookshop to buy a card in that time. And, that is just another reason why I make my own.

Fun & Fast Notes..

I usually pop in a small "thank you" card for my customers with their orders, but this time I made a full size card.  I used the little bird from the Fun & Fast notes set.  Isn't he just the cutest? 

I've double mounted the stamps with this set - that is, I've separated the message from the image (cut the rubber stamp before adhering to the block) and adhered them separately  (that's the beauty of being able to mount them ourselves). The image is on the main part of the wooden block and the message is on the end, so I can stamp either just the image or just the words, or I can mix and match.  Double mounting gives me alot more choices. 

Fun and Fast notes come with 8 images and 8 messages and costs just $68.95.  This is another example of a stamp set that ticks all the boxes for being generic and has images and greetings.

To make this card, I also used Tea Party DSP, Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon (retired), and the small flowers are punched out from the trio flower punch, with a dab of white gel pen in the middle, mounted with dimensionals.

Kaleidoscope Card

Have I mentioned that I love this kaleidoscope paper?  (probably only about 20 times....lol). I've been playing over the last couple of days and thought I'd give the faux zig zag sewing a go.  I'm really pleased with the result and love these colours together. Very bright and vibrant!  I dyed the flowers from the pretties kit to coordinate with the card, and if you want to know how to do this, contact me and I'll show you how.
 

Neice's 8th birthday card

We're off to Palmerston North next week and while we're there, it's my neice's 8th birthday. I can't believe I'm so organised and have made her card already. She's a typical little girl and loves glitter and pink so that helped me decide what I was going to do. I hate to admit this, but it's the first time I've used the Big Bold Birthday stamp set. Shame on me!!  It won't be the last time though because it's such a generic set and can be used for both male and female of all ages. There are lots of different combinations that you can stamp, it has messages and images and basically, it ticks all the boxes that you should look for in a stamp set. 

Upsy Daisy Birthday Card

This is a card I made for my sister's birthday. It took me longer than usual, because I'd started tidying out my craft room (as mentioned in my earlier post) and everything was in a state of disarray. It was quite a mission and I'd left it to the last minute, and so was pleased to finish it.  Fortunately she received it on her special day so that was good...

I've used my fave Kaleidoscope designer paper and have stamped the Upsy Daisy stamp in Tempting Turquoise. The picture doesn't show it very well, but I've glittered the tops of the daisies to add some sparkles. The ribbon was one of the ones in the bundle that we could earn a few months back.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

I haven't got anything to show and tell at the moment, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year filled with lots of good health, love and laughter. Oh, and of course lots of wonderful creative stampin' inspirations too!! 

I've been cleaning out my craft room for the last few days and it's been a mammoth task. It's only a small room with enough space for me, myself and I to work in, but it's better than nothing so I'm not complaining. I've got it how I want finally, but have a whole lot of other craft stuff that have to find space for. Hopefully a big cabinet that will go into the garage will house it all, because I am lothe to part with it...  There's fabric, sewing patterns, magazines, mosaic stuff, patchwork materials, art supplies and lots of other bits and bobs that are bound to come in handy one day.  Who else is guilty of being a bit of a hoarder??