Panda hugs

Morning all.  It's taken me almost 2 weeks but I've eventually made a card, lol.

This simple card uses the Mama Elephant Pandamonium stamp and die set as the main focus.

The hugs die is new and I thought it was perfect with the pandas.

I did consider putting a tie on one of these but decided against it.  I'm not that good at drawing!

This little panda is really cute and looks to be having fun.

I kept the colours very plain as I didn't think it needed too much.  What do you think?

TTFN Jude xx

Old coin keyring

Good morning all, hope you are well. Today's post is a bit different, just to show a little key ring gift that I made for a friend at work for her birthday.

It may seem a little odd to add money to a key ring, but she saves 50p pieces, and collects all the unusual ones that are released every so often, here in the UK, so I thought it would appeal. 

I remembered I had a very old 50p from 1978, much before they were made smaller, so I used that one and a more modern one from 2008 for two of the charms. 

To keep them looking nice, I cleaned them with silver cleaner, then I coated the coins with clear gel varnish and heat set it under a UV lamp. This gives them a nice smooth finish and will stop them from marking anything, as coins can be really dirty.

I then added a couple of pretty beads and a scrabble tile with her initial on, to finish it off.

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Plastic wallet shaker card

Good morning crafty friends, Jen back again today, hope you are all having a good week. Today's card is a very simple shaker card. 

I got this idea from a lady on Instagram, who had used a die storage wallet to make a shaker card. I don't have any of those type of wallets, but I do have clear CD wallets that we use to store our small dies in. 

I used a 6 x 6 card blank for the base then covered this with some blue patterned paper from the stash. The CD wallet fits lovely on to this size of card, so all I had to do was fill the wallet with sequins and then seal it shut with some clear tape. 

I then used some white Centura Pearl card to make a frame for the front. I did this by cutting a square of card and then using a square die from an MFT Stamps Blueprint set to cut the inside out. 

The little elephant and balloon are from the Avery Elle, Ellie stamp set. I stamped them with London Fog Memento ink and then coloured them with Copics. I then cut them both out by hand. 

I used part of a Cheery Lyn die for the large Happy and then stamped the Birthday with Jet black Archival ink using part of the Happy Everything set from MFT Stamps. 

This method makes a lovely shaker card without all the faffing with foam tape etc. and it really cuts down on the size and weight so these could be posted quite easily. 

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon. 

xxx

You make me happy

Good morning all, hope you are well. As Jude said yesterday we are all back from our holidays and most of us are now back at work. I have had a brilliant week away and it has been so lovely to spend some time with a lot of my family. But next time we do it, Jude is definitely coming with us lol. 

Today's card was made taking inspiration from Pinterest, then using my supplies to recreate something similar. 

I used a turquoise card with a slight shimmer for the background. I ran it through a small dots embossing folder and then cut it down to make a 7 x 5 card blank. 

The sentiment is part of the Blue Skies Ahead stamp set from MFT Stamps and I stamped it with Paris Dusk Dew Drop ink. 

I carefully only inked part of the stamp for the main sentiment, then inked the bottom part to make the bottom sentiment. 

I used a Marianne Designs embossing folder to emboss the honeycomb design in to the strip of black card at the back, then I used some grey polkadot paper and backed this with grey card for the centre panel. 

The yellow circle is made up with a plain Spellbinders circle die and then I cut a slightly larger Spellbinders Lacey Circles die to sit behind it. 

I finished the card off with some stick on jewels, a few sequins and a die cut butterfly. 

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon. 

xxx

Crafty Goodies

Happy Monday everyone.

Jen and the family are now all safely back from their holiday.  They have had a fabulous time and are all pleasantly tanned.

While she was away Jen managed to do some crafty shopping!  She placed an order from sunny Spain to be delivered on Saturday.

This is the Party Animal die and stamp set.

This is Owen's ABC stamp set and matching circle die.

Can't wait to find something to make with them.  Hopefully these might spark my creativity!

TTFN Jude xx

Love you tons

Good morning all, hope you have had a good week. I am still in Spain but will be going home tomorrow boo. 

Today's card has elephants, is yellow and cute, so scores top marks for me lol. I used our new Lawn Fawn Love You Tons set for this one.

I stamped the elephants in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and then coloured them with Copics. 

Then I stamped the sentiments using one from the same set as well as the 'mum' from a Crafters Companion Sentimentals set and an old wooden stamp for the 'happy birthday'. 

I like to mix and match with stamp sets, that way you get just what you want. I cut out the middle panels with the MFT Stamps Stitched Squares dies. 

Then I used a yellow paper from the stash and found a small piece of yellow ribbon to tie a bow. 

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Ooops

I didn't have much to do while Jen was away. Just look after the dogs and craft, and I can't get that right!! I totally forgot it's Thursday and I was supposed to make something for today - I didn't 😱

Instead I'm sharing the contents of the latest Studio Calico kit that arrived at the weekend. 

I haven't had chance to play yet but I will. 

TTFN Jude xx

Panda tumble - 1000th Post

Good morning all, today's card is made with the Pandemonium set from Mama Elephant, and is also our 1000th post !!!!! Here's to another 1000, lol.

I cut the panda 3 times and then stamped him with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. I love having the coordinating dies for stamps, it makes life so much easier. 

For the background I picked two sticky back papers from a DCWV textured card stock stack and stuck them lengthways across a long card blank. 

These aren't my usual card blanks. I got a couple of them in the last Studio Calico card kit. 

I positioned the pandas on the card so it looks like he was doing a cartwheel or something, and then ended up on his bottom. 

I used another sheet from the same card stack to cut the Happy from using our Happy Birthday on the edge dies. Then I used the same card to cut the sun using the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine set.  

I finished it off by stamping the sentiment from the MFT Stamps Happy Everything set, in Jet Black Archival Ink.. 

Hope you like it, take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Blue Skies

Hi everyone.  Jen's away and I have the craft room all to myself.  Can I think of anything to make!!

Anyway as a fan of Jennifer McGuire, I was scanning some of her Pinterest cards and came across this card, which she blogged on her site back in April 2014.

Jennifer used the Avery Elle die set but we have one similar made by My Favourite Things.  This is my version of her card.

I used a patterned paper just to add extra interest.

I found the string really difficult to stick down, even though I used Ranger matte medium as suggested on Jennifer's blog.

The stamp set is also by MFT and is called Blue Skies Ahead.  I used Memento Elderberry ink for the sentiment.

Hope you like it.

I'm off to browse for more inspiration.  Catch you soon.

TTFN Jude xx