French foliage poinsettias …

It has been so cold here over the past few days anyone would think it was winter, not spring!  The sun has at least been shining today, but that wind is still so chilly – brrrrrr!

So I decided to cheer myself up a bit and got out my scrap box to make a card.  Inspired by a card I saw on Maria’s blog – this is what I came up with …

 

Lucky limeade is a beautiful shade of green and one of my favourites – I love how it looks with real red for a fresh, Christmassy look.

I stamped the leaf, from the french foliage stamp set, in cherry cobbler and old olive inks onto scraps of real red cardstock and then cut out each one using my paper snips.

Once I made the first flower it was hard to stop making them, and so I just kept going until I was out of scraps!

I found a strip of punched cardstock amongst my scraps too.  The punch is now retired but I loved how it looked on the edge of the dsp …

To achieve the two tone effect on the label, I first inked up the large label from the layered labels set using certainly celery ink, and then added some darker ink here and there using an old olive stampin writer marker pen, before stamping the image onto naturals ivory cardstock and cutting out with the matching apothecary accents framelits.

Here’s what I used to make today’s card – all supplies from Stampin’ Up!:

cardstock: lucky limeade, real red, naturals ivory, shimmery white; stamp sets: french foliage, more merry messages, layered labels; inks: cherry cobbler, old olive, basic grey, certainly celery; punches: large oval, border (retired); accessories: adhesive pearls, stampin’ dimensionals, apothecary accents framelits, big shot, parker’s patterns designer series paper, old olive stampin’ write marker pen.

Thanks for dropping by today

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

Happy Christmas Eve to you – it really is the most wonderful time of the year.

Inspired by a triptic card on Splitcoast Stampers, I made a version of my own for my husband using the polar party stamp set from Stampin’ Up!  I added a couple of rows of sticky strip and applied dazzling diamonds for some Christmassy sparkle.

Christmas celebrations are well underway in our house.  My husband and I had a lovely afternoon at a matinee performance of “A Christmas Carol”, performed by the great, great grandson of none other than Charles Dickens himself. It took place in the most ornate and fabulous surroundings of the theatre in St George’s Hall, Liverpool, where Charles Dickens had once performed, celebrating the bicentenary of this amazing author. What a great way to start our celebrations and get into the Christmas spirit.

The performance began with an introduction by local historian, Steve Binns MBE, who shared some of his knowledge of Charles Dickens and the time spent by Dickens in Liverpool.  Then onto the stage walked Gerald Dickens…

Dressed in Victorian costume – long coat, ruffed shirt, cravat, top hat and cane – his only other props being a chair and small table – he went on to perform the play single-handedly.  He is such a talented actor, using only his voice, facial expressions and body gestures to play all the parts and convey the story.  He was truly amazing and made it one of the most enjoyable experiences.  Even the tea and mince pies served at the interval were the best tasting of the season!

It was really heart-warming that this was a charitable event, with volunteers giving of their time and with all proceeds going to a local charity for the aged, in particular to help those with dementia, which is a charity particularly close to our hearts having sadly touched several members of our own family.

The message in “A Christmas Carol” is as true today as when Dickens first wrote it, so that just leaves me to say “Merry Christmas and God bless us everyone”.

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Here’s what you need to make today’s card – all supplies from Stampin’ Up!:

cardstock: bashful blue, whisper white; stamp sets: polar party, more merry messages; inks: bashful blue, marina mist, real red, black stazon; accessories: stampin’ dimensionals, watercolour paper, tombow multi glue, sticky strip, dazzling diamonds, adhesive rhinestones.

Thanks for dropping by today

Ornament keepsakes Christmas trees …

My oh my – it’s less than 12 weeks to Christmas!  Eleven weeks today will be Christmas Eve …

… I can’t wait!  I’m a big kid when it comes to Christmas –

I love the build up, the preparation, the decorating and of course the card making!

Today I decided to go “off piste” to make this card without the aid of my stamp-a-majig …

… don’t know if that was such a good idea now!

I think I would prefer to use my trusty stamp-a-majig and line everything up perfectly, but I do love these colours together – very contemporary and not at all traditional! I don’t think my mum would’ve approved – she was a very traditional lady – but she made Christmas just magical…

When I first got my set of ornament keepsakes stamps, I thought this stamp looked like a fir tree and couldn’t wait to make a card with it – I can see I’m going to have to make some more!

Here’s what you need to make today’s card – all supplies from Stampin’ Up!:

cardstock: tempting turquoise, whisper white; stamp sets: ornament keepsakes, pennant parade; inks: tempting turquoise, melon mambo, lucky limeade; accessories: stampin’ write marker pens in tempting turquoise, melon mambo and lucky limeade, adhesive rhinestones.

I’d be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered to your door in any of the following European countries – the UK, Germany, France, Austria or the Netherlands. To place your order, you can email me at lilybygilly@gmail.com or call me on 0772 980 8152 and I’d be happy to help.

Thanks for dropping by today

ILWS new catalogue blog hop …

Hello and welcome to the In Love With Stamping (ILWS) blog hop.

Today sees the launch of the brand new Stampin’ Up!® annual catalogue and, together with the recently launched autumn/winter catalogue, we now have more choice than ever before of the beautiful Stampin’ Up!® products.

To celebrate, a group of us on In Love With Stamping got together for a blog hop to showcase lots of fabulous items from both catalogues, which are now available to order.  You should have arrived here from Beckie’s page – if not, do make sure you take a look at her beautiful projects.

For today’s hop, I chose to make Christmas projects using something old and something new …

I used one of the gorgeous stamps from the ornament keepsakes set with the matching die,

these are available to purchase separately from the autumn/winter catalogue,

or you can purchase them together as a bundle and make a great saving …

I added a strip of the gorgeous festival of prints dsp in a matching colour,

a tiny bow of cherry cobbler scalloped tulle ribbon and some adhesive pearls.

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For my second card, I used the delightful decorations set with the matching ornament punch,

this time stamping a strip of very vanilla with one of the smaller stamps from the set …

more tiny tulle bows and adhesive pearls completed the look.

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 And finally, for my last project, I used a different stamp from the same set,

stamped 5 images in cherry cobbler and punched them out with the ornament punch,

scored and folded them to make this cute decoration for my Christmas tree…

And here are all three projects together …

The sentiment is from another one of my favourite sets - beautiful season,

and was stamped in early espresso ink.

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Here’s what you need to make today’s projects – all supplies from Stampin’ Up! -

cardstock: naturals ivory, very vanilla; stamp sets:  ornament keepsakes, delightful decorations, beautiful season; ink: cherry cobbler, early espresso; accessories:  festival of prints dsp, corner rounder and ornament punches, holiday ornaments framelits dies, big shot machine, cherry cobbler scalloped tulle ribbon, linen thread, tombow multi glue, mini glue dots, stampin’ dimensionals, adhesive pearls.

I’d be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered to your door at any UK address. To place your order, you can email me at lilybygilly@gmail.com or call me on 0772 980 8152 and I’d be happy to help.

Now it’s time to hop to Diane’s blog to see what she’s been making.

Thanks for dropping by today