Happy Birthday....

To me!

Yep, 28 years old today. And sitting at home with a sick hubby and three challenging little people! But, I have settled bubby Samuel (now 9 weeks old) and have the older two playing happily out in the garden so I thought I would visit with all my blog friends and share a little card - a birthday card!

This card was made for my lovely friend who celebrated her birthday at the end of December. I know she likes the Stampin' up! Love leter DSP so I made this card with similar colours. I used cherry cobbler, basic black and very vanilla cardstock. The ribbon is the gorgeous 5/8" black satin ribbon. I have embossed the Cherry cobbler CS with the Manhattan Flower textured impressions and the little butterfly from the Great friend stamp set has been embossed for a glossy finish. The sentiment comes from the set, Teeny tiny sentiments - such a useful set!

I hope you all have a happy day. My plan, to enjoy the day as it comes, doing what I love, being a mum. I hope this card inspires you to create something fun today!

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Something for the man in your life

Hi girls!

A big happy new year to you all! May 2011 be a wonderful year for you in all you do!

I have a confession... when the 2010-11 Stampin'Up! Idea book was released I was quite disapointed by the lack of new mens stamp sets. Well can I just say that the new Summer mini catalogue has totally redeemed this situation! There are new products in this mini that make great mens cards!

Here I have made a card for a male birthday. I have used the gorgeous new Sentimental Journey stamp set from the mini and teamed it up with the Travel Journal designer series papers. That gorgeous Bashful blue cardstock has been embossed with the new Square lattice embossing folder on the Big shot and to tie in with the DSP I have used a knotted piece of pumpkin pie grosgrain ribbon (love this vibrant ribbon) and stamped a sentiment from the Upsy Daisy stamp set in Pumpkin pie ink. All of this is positioned on a Crumb cake base.

The Sentimental Journey stamp set has 8 stamps in it including a ship, airplane, car, suitcase and compass plus three word stamps - journey, travel and detour. This is a set that is also brilliant for scrapping with and I plan to use it for this as I have so many travel photos yet to be scrapped!

Please click on the link to the left to see the Summer mini catalogue and drop me an email if you wish to make a purchase.

I mentioned that there are a few new products for masculine cards in this mini, so I will be back with more soon!

Happy Stamping! Love, Claire

Perfect punching with some papers!

Here is a sweet little birthday card made for one of our little friends who turned 2 recently. I just love stamps that co-ordinate with punches and this card demonstrates just how quickly you can put a card together using these co-ordinating products. These fun Playdate designer series papers also inspired the colour combo I have used here.

I am entering this card into this weeks Just add ink challenge which is to just add Summer - butterflies and flowers say Summer don't they? :)

Supplies used:

Stamps: Perfect punches, Butterfly prints

Ink: Chocolate chip, Real red

Cardstock: Chocolate chip, So saffron, Whisper white and Playdate DSP.

Accessories: Scallop edge border punch, Wide oval punch, Butterfly punch.

Happy stamping! Love, Claire

Christmas card production line!

Good morning girls!!

As promised, here is a little piccie of the cards that my sister and I have mass produced for her clients! We made 80 in all and actually Laura is yet to finish putting them all together as we just ran out of time at the end of her stay (truth be told, sushi and shopping took priority!).

We used items from the Delightful decorations bundle to make this card - that includes the Ornament punch, Delightful decorations stamp set and the Old olive ribbon from the free ribbon bundle, Mistletoe originals. The colours used are Cherry cobbler and Old olive on a Whisper white base. The Old olive stamped decoration is actually stamped on the inside of the card and the card front has had the decoration shape punched out to form a little window. The sentiment comes from the Welcome Christmas stamp set and is stamped in Early espresso ink. We also used the Perfect polkadots embossing folder to achieve the polkadot pattern on the Cherry cobbler cardstock.

Don't forget that the Dress up Christmas Promotion where you can qualify for free ribbons runs out on November 30th. Contact me if you'd like to order any of these gorgeous bundles with free ribbon before then.

Happy stamping! Love, Claire

Some Birthday Cheer

Hello Girls!

Well, for those of you in blogland who have not yet heard, our dear baby boy Samuel arrived on Sunday November 7th @ 1.45am! So he is just over 1 week old and so lovely! He is going so well, feeding and sleeping wonderfully.

I thought I would pop by today to share a couple of Birthday cards with you. The first one was for a little girl at Ethan's school. It uses the stamp sets For Everything and Perfect punches. The colours are Pear pizzazz, Blushing bride, Marina mist and So saffron.

This next little card was made for a good friends little boy who turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. I love all the blues that we have in the Stampin Up! Colour collections now but my favourite would have to be Marina Mist. This card uses the stamp sets Teeny tiny sentiments and Fox and friends. The colours are Bashful blue, Marina mist and Tempting turquoise.

I have had my gorgeous sister Laura here for the last week and she has been a wonderful help to me as well as a great companion. Tomorrow we have to finish making 100 Christmas cards for her to send to her customers and friends! Wow! We'll be busy that's for sure. I will take some photos to share with you all next time.

Happy Stamping!

Love, Claire

Welcome Christmas

Hi Girls!

I am just loving having so many new products and colours to enjoy at the moment. A really surprising stamp set for me has been the Perfect punches set. It contains 6 stamps with greetings which co-ordinate with Stampin' Up punches. This one here is the Joy at Christmas stamp which I have used with the scallop circle punch and 1 3/8" circle punch. Pear pizzazz is really one of my favourite colours at the moment and here I have teamed it up with Real red and a little Concord Crush.

The beautiful little family scene is from the Welcome Christmas stamp set and I have stamped it in Pear pizzazz and Versamark before heat embossing it with some clear EP. The Versamark allows the Embossing powder to stick to the image.

Don't forget the current Christmas Promotion where you can receive free ribbons when you purchase one of the Christmas Bundles or host a qualifying workshop! Have a look at the Stampin' Up! website here for more information. Please email me if you would like to place an order.

Happy Stamping!!

Love, Claire

Heart of Christmas wreath

Hi my stamping friends!
A little something to share with you but it's not so much of the stamping variety - much more punching and bow tying here today!
Here I have made a simple wreath using the branch from the Two step bird punch and one of the little flowers from the Boho blossoms punch. Some of the new SU adhesive pearls and lovely Real red satin ribbon just finish it all off!
I am also really enjoying the Heard from the heart stamp set which includes four beautiful sayings.

Happy Stamping!
Love, Claire