Row of Trees

Morning! Looks like it's going to be another lovely day with the sun shining and not a cloud in sight here in Lincolnshire.

I thought I'd share one of the teacher's 'thank you' cards with you. I bought a set of Hampton Art clear stamps recently called Tree (SC0183). The teacher is quite young (compared to me anyway!) and I wanted something clean and contemporary looking.

Stamps: Hampton Art 'Tree' clear stamp set (SC0183)

Ink: Versacolor cubes in Cinnamon, Bamboo and Cocoa

Card Blank: Craftwork Cards

Brown card: Piece of recycled card from the back of a pad in the shop!

Button and Twine from stash

Woodware corner rounder used for some cornersSentiment: Stampendous Perfectly Clear stamp set called Petal Plus

Thanks for looking and have a lovely weekend.

Sue x

Have a Great Time in Australia

It was a happy yet sad day yesterday. It was the last day of the school year and both my kids move up to a new class in the Autumn.

Thank you cards were made for the teachers and regrettably my daughter's teacher is actually leaving to go travelling in Australia.  She has been absolutely fantastic and we couldn't have wished for a better teacher for our daughter's first year at school. We bought her some pressies and wished her lots of happiness and I made her this leaving card:

I downloaded the Summer Time Sandals digi stamp from Whimsy Stamps (a Meljen Designs stamp).

Sentiment: Computer printed before decorating card

Background: Verve Stamps - Petals & Stems clear stamps coloured with Versacolor cubes in Magenta and Lime

Scalloped card: Craftwork Cards

Sandals: Coloured with Prismacolor pencils

Finishing touches: Diamond Stickles and some clear gems


I masked out the surrounding detail on the stamp so I only got the flip flops for my card as I wanted to do my own floral background. Although she was leaving, I wanted the card to be bright and cheerful so I focused on the positive side of her leaving rather than going for a 'sorry you're leaving' style doom and gloom card!

I notice that the theme for the Bee Crafty Downloads Blog this fortnight is 'At The Beach' so I thought I would enter this card.

Thanks for looking!

Sue x

Fun at the Summer Fair

It was our village Summer Fair on 11 July and I have been meaning to put this post on since.

This year there were various competitions for various age groups and I encouraged my kids to join in. I thought it would be great if they won something although the taking part is great fun. They both created a 'scene in a box'. My 5 year old daughter is Polly Pocket mad and decided to opt for a beach scene. She made the flag and umbrella and added her own glitter effects to them! We made a little rock pool and she added some Polly Pocket chairs and a picnic box.

My lad is 9 and he went for a winter scene. He decided to use my Penny Black Fantasy tree stamp for the background and added some diamond Stickles for added icy effect! The snowmen were cotton wool and stick on gems.

I was 'challenged' by one of the Mum's at the school to enter the knitting category. A 'small knitted item' was the requirement. I haven't knitted for 15 years but I thought this would be a bit of good fun. I haven't got any of my knitting patterns so I scoured the internet. I have never been good at knitting clothing so I thought I would try and find a small toy or something like that and I remembered I had used Jean Greenhowe's patterns in the dim and distant past. Well! What a treat, I found a free pattern of hers on the internet for some small cakes. You can find it here.

I'd left it all a bit til the last minute but bought my wool etc on the Friday and by Sunday morning I had knitted a small selection of icing topped biscuits and cakes, plus one piece of shortbread that my son asked me to do.

We took all the entries down to the village hall on the Sunday morning as they were all being judged before the start at 2pm.

Well we went down about 2.30pm and boy were we chuffed! My daughter had won 3rd place, my lad had won 2nd place and I had won 1st!. We all had a rosette each and we had a good chuckle as my prize money was £1.50! Not to be sniffed at though. 

We bought some lovely scones and cookies while we were there and had a go on all the other stalls.

There is an Autumn Fair too, so we'll have to see what competition categories come up next time!

Thanks for looking.

Sue x

Red, White & Blue Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Good afternoon and hoorah! I managed to complete a challenge this week.

The weather has been gorgeous again and there is a lovely breeze here today. Haven't seen much of the weather though having been in the shop but the weekend is a-coming. Enjoyed taking the kids swimming last weekend and had a chuckle covering hubby in the shop on Sunday as he went to Santa Pod to a Jap Car Show. I don't usually do Sundays.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. Here is my card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week:

Scalloped card blank: Craftwork Cards

Pale blue backing paper: cannot remember brand name

Penny Black stamp: Constellations (3867K)

Butterflies: Verve Stamp set - Petals & Stems

Distress Inks: Broken China and Fired Brick

White embossing powder

Versacolor Vanilla ink cube 

Glossy Accents

Red craft wire

Sentiment: no brand name

Red organza ribbon

Now this week I decided to try a new technique for me. I did some embossed resist stamping. I had been looking at Jennifer McGuire's blog and decided to have a go as her cards looked stunning but not over complicated for the likes of myself to try!!

I stamped my image using the Versacolor vanilla ink cube (I don't have any white or I'd have used that) and then covered it with white embossing powder and put the heat gun to it. After cooling I used the Broken China distress ink and just rubbed the ink pad all over it then left it to dry. I have to say I was really pleased with the result and loved the colour. 

To add the red, I attached my image to some red card.

Then I decided to use some of my Verve stamps and stamped a couple of butterflies with the Fired Brick distress ink. I left them to dry and just cut out the wing parts. Folded them up at the centre to give some dimension and made some antennae using some red craft wire which I wrapped round part of a safety pin to get the curly bits. I attached these to the back of the butterflies using Glossy Accents as it dries really well and holds things really tight.

I punched a little hole in my sentiment tag and added a piece of red ribbon. Then, I stuck all the bits on and voila!

Thanks for having a look.

Sue x

Petals & Stems - my first Verve Stamps purchase!

Wow! Hasn't the weather been just fabulous here this week. It's lovely to be able to walk the kids to school in the morning without fear of a heavy shower. It also makes everyone so much happier seeing some sunshine.


Well, I was on that famous auction site the other day looking for bargains, as you do. I spotted these beautiful stamps and it said they were by a company called Verve. 

I had never heard of Verve Stamps but thought they were so pretty. I then found myself on the trails of Verve Stamps and found that they have a website here in the USA. Unfortunately the stamps are not stocked here in the UK at the moment but you can buy online from their website. They are absolutely fab. Right up my street.

Whilst looking I went to their blog which is full of inspiration. I found a challenge called Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT). So, I thought I'd give it a go. I don't get time to do many challenges but I thoroughly enjoy them when I do.

Here is my card:

Colours: Versacolour Cubes Amethyst and Lime Green, and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink

Sentiment: Craftwork Cards

Ribbon: Lime green satin ribbon

Fiskars Threading Water Punch used on purple strip

Thanks for looking! Have a fab weekend.

Sue x