Octobers Class

For our Octobers class, I had been asked to create a female celebration birthday card and a card suitable for a male. And with Christmas around the corner we made a 3D Christmas card.

 I gave my ladies the option of making this card as a general birthday card or as one for an 'age'.  The colours used were Whisper White, Marina Mist and Pear Pizzazz. The stamp sets used were Stylized Birthday and Number of Years.

For this card we used a variety of colours including Elegant Eggplant, Rich Razzleberry, Rose Red, Marina Mist, Soft Sky.  The stamp sets used were Lift Me Up and Best Birds.

I found this card on Pinterest but can't remember who it was by. This used the shadow box card technique and folds flat to go in an envelope.  The colours used were Night of Navy, Crushed Curry (for the 'lights' in the houses) and Whisper White. The stamp sets used were Number of Years and Star of Light.  Dies used were Layering Ovals, Card Front Builder and Hometown Greetings.

June's Card Class

Hi Again. This month we were very busy using the Big Shot and making quite a variety of styles of cards - a shaker card, an easel card and a card for the handyman in our lives!

The first card we made is suitable for a wedding or engagement.  We used Elegant Eggplant and Shimmer White cardstock but any colour can be used to suit the wedding colours. The stamp set used was Floral Phrases and matching die set Detailed Floral Thinlets.  We were thankful for the Die Brush that gets all the little bits of card out of the die!  The greeting was cut out using the Layering Ovals Framelits.  I felt that the card needed something to finish it off so used the retired punches Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly along with a small string of Rhinestone Basic Jewels.  Finally we used some Elegant Eggplant Solid Bakers Twine to wrap around the card.

 Our second card I felt was appropriate for Fathers Days that is on 18th June or for any handyman!  Unfortunately the stamp set Nailed It and matching Build It dies did not carry over from the Spring/Summer seasonal catalogue to the new annual catalogue.  The colours used were Real Red, Crumb Cake, Basic Grey, Delightful Dijon, Basic Black and Silver Foil card with Momento Ink.  The greeting was taken from a previously retired set as it the only Father's Day greeting I had.  The background was stamped using the Hardwood and the Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.

Our final card was a shaker card for which I had had several requests!  This one used a new set Happy Birthday Gorgeous which is a great set consisting of 32 stamps for only £19! There are flowers and balloons and several greetings, I can see me using this sets on several occasions!  The main colours used were Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Gold Foil sheet and Whisper White. The Happy Birthday thinlet works well with this set and here I cut off the 'Birthday' part and used the word 'BIRTHDAY' from the Number of Years stamp set inside the 'shaker' part of the card. This along with the 'Hooray' was heat embossed using White embossing powder.  The background was embossed using Sparkle Embossing Folder, the stars cut out using the retired Stars Confetti punch, the balloons cut out with the Balloon Bouquet punch and the square window using the Layering Squares Framelits.

Final Class of the Year!

Well here we are at the end of 2016 and I am still not keeping up with this blog! I have had a very busy December with lots of craft fairs, commissions and classes.  My New Years Resolution should be to be more organsied!

So for the last class we made a final Christmas card that uses the 'Peek-a-boo' technique. This is where on opening the card, the back sort of slides to reveal a hidden message. It would be better to show on a video but that is not something I have yet managed to master on here! We used projects from the Autumn/Winter catalogue which also reitred at the end of the year. The stamp set used was Stitched with Cheer with its coordinating DSP Warmth and Cheer.  The colours used were Garden Green, Cheery Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso.

Photo showing card in 'closed' position.

 Photo showing card in 'open' position.

For our second card, I returned to using the stamp set, Sprinkles of Life and its coordinating punch set, produced two years ago by Stampin Up to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House Charites whereby £2 from the sale of the stamp set goes to the charity.  We also used the current 2016-2018 In-Colors.  The greeting was taken from the Flourishing Phrases stamp set from the main catalogue. (Sorry for the slight marking on the front of the card, I forgot to take the photo before the class and it seemed to have had a close encounter with some ink at the class!)

 For our 3D project, we made a desk calendar/Post-it Note holder and a decorated pen. For this project I used up retired DSP and let my customers chose which one they wanted to use.  The numbers were taken from the Number of Years stamp set.

The Festive Season Is Approaching!! (Octobers Class)

For this months class, we made use of the Design Series Paper Pop Of Pink which is a great, bright paper using Melon Mambo that contrasts well with Whisper White and Basic Black.  We matched it with Sliver Glimmer Paper too.

The first card we made used the shaker card technique.  For this we used some window sheet and the new foam adhesive strips.  The mini stars were punched out of Melon Mambo and Sliver Foil sheet using the Confetti Stars Border punch.  The greeting was taken form the Best Birds stamp set and the banner from Number of Years.  Everyone enjoyed making this card!

The second card used the same colour combination and DSP and was used to create a birthday card with balloons made with the Balloon Bouquet.  The greeting was taken from Endless Birthday Wishes.

As the festive season will be soon upon us

April's Class

How nice the light evenings are now that the clocks have changed; especially for my classes at Selsley Scout Hut where we can see the Severn Vale whilst we work, well for the first part of the evening at least!
This month we made a card for an anniversary, a general card for a child and a box to cover a cube box of tissues.
The anniversary card just used two colours, Whisper White and Mint Macaroon. The hearts were from the stamp set Pictogram Punches and the greeting taken from Number of Years stamp set. The birds made using the Bird Builder punch. Simple but effective!

The general birthday card for a child was made using the now retired Sale-a-bration set Hello.  The colours used were Real Red, Pacific Point and Daffodil Delight.

Finally this weeks 3d project showed a good way of how to use up old DSP paper by creating a box and covering the sides.  Everyone had a choice of paper designs to use and I had cut the coordinating cardstock to suit.

March Class Projects

As I write this I am hoping that the weather is going to continue being spring like and not the artic conditions that we have been forecast!


To celebrate Spring/Mothers Day and Easter, I couldn't resist using the stamp set Circle of Spring for this months card class. It is my new favourite set with a selection of greetings - thank you, happy mothers day, happy easter, happy spring and happy birthday to you - perfect for this time of year.  I chose just a few colours to showcase this set, using Crumb Cake ink and card stock for the background stamp Hardwood and then either So Saffron or Pool Party for the flowers and bows with Pear Pizzazz for the greenery.  The best thing about this set is that it coordinates with the Wonderful Wreath framelits so you don't have all the fiddly cutting out to do!  I used a few Pearl Basic Jewels to the centres of the flowers and bows to enhance the design.

The second card we made was a bit tricky but everyone was pleased with the result as it is such an unusual design - you won't find these in the shops!  This tri-fold card was again made using Crumb Cake card stock with English Garden DSP and Number of Years stamp set with a selection of colours for the flower arrangement. This is another great set perfect for celebrating just about any occasion.

Finally our 3D project was a little Cadbury's Creme Egg holder with a little rabbit on the front. I gave everyone the choice of either doing a forward facing or rear facing rabbit.  The main colours used were Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride and Whisper White cardstock and the greeting taken from the
Circle of Spring stamp set.  The 'grass' was creating by using the Fringe scissors and the box design is taken from the birdhouse design made using the Simply Scored Scoring Tool.