Throwback Thursday and goodbye!

Hello!

Well,this is my last blog post here for the time being,so I am treating you to a proper throwback stamp set! 

It's simple,it's pretty,it's oh so easy yet effectively modern,it's Wplus9 Iconic Christmas.

See? Easy and elegant :-)

The words are from the gorgeously useful Winnie and Walter The Big,The Bold and Fun (these sets from W & W are great for project life too!)

Stamp the tree,stamp and cute out choice words,and a sequin at the top and bobs your uncle!

I hope you like it!

Right,that's it from me-Tara has an awesome new DT member lined up,you will meet her soon! 

I can't wait to see her projects :-)

Happy Christmas everyone,and all the best for 2015

Lou x
 

 

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday here at Make the Day Special Stamp Store! Before we delve into the past,have you SEEN the scrummy new goodness that has been arriving in the shop?! Its very very hard not to blow the food budget and just buy EVERYTHING!!!!

Anyway,back to past releases ;-) Lydia and I decided to try using the same stamp set for different projects. Lydia is a traditional scrapbooker (and has a STUNNING style-pop to her blog and have a peek) and I am an avid Project Lifer,so we chose the cute Mama Elephant Bootastic and got our BOO on :-)

I loved grouping all the little trick n' treaters together on one card-they are super cute! I went with no colour on the images,as my palette for this spread is fairly unaccepting of anything other than orange,grey,black and white-so stamped them on some print cardstock,stamped and stitched the little pumpkins along the top like lanterns.

I did the same for the bats and spiders,stamping,cutting and using stitching to add movement:

Added a little cheesecloth behind the spiders for a web-like look:

Ta-dah!

If you ask her nicely,I'm sure Lydia will show you her gorgeous Scrapbook layout...its boo-tiful!

See you next week-I might have stopped doing Halloween projects by then.....

but then again,I might not have ;-)

Lou x

Colour Week Day 4

Hello!

Wow,colour week is producing some gorgeous cards and great tips isn't it? I hope mine doesn't disappoint as we head towards the weekend. I LOVE Halloween. I tend to go a bit nuts at this time of year with my two most favourite holidays fast approaching. As a result,I have a tendency to buy ALL (and I mean ALL) Halloween and Christmas related stamps. Want to know what (nearly)all Lawn Fawn's Halloween stamp sets look like in one place...? Look no further!

There is a looooot of colouring on this,so maybe grab a coffee and pull up a chair as this is very photo heavy! The sets I used are Lawn Fawn Critters in Costume, Hoppy Halloween, Happy Haunting and So Thankful and their dies. The only sets I didn't use was Trick or Treat and Heebie Jeebies:-)

I use Copic Ciao pens,and I used a white jelly pen to highlight. On the pumpkins I used the white then smudged it straight away to give a more subtle highlight,like this...

This is a bendi fold card,so I guess the easiest way to show it all to you is like a striptease ;-) 

Here is layer one...

Lots of Autumn coloured Copics used in this!

Grey pens,whatever brand you favor,are a great investment. They can be used over other colours to add depth and shading. On the vampire bunny,I used some grey on his cloak where the shadows would be.

On to the next layer! And you can see the white highlights on witches cat :-)

And finally the last photo! This is the card opened up,ta-dah!

My top tip for colouring is to keep a scrap of the same card that you are using beside you and first try colour combos/shading etc on that before committing it to the stamped image,and don't be shy to try seemingly weird combos :-)

I hope all this colouring is inspiring you to try something new-the shops latest challenge is up now and the prize is awesome as ever! Check back in tomorrow for more from:

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

Happy nearly weekend day!

Todays card was inspired by 'that' John Lewis advert last year,you know the one-hare and bear? Well as soon as I saw Lawn Fawn's Hello Baby and Love you S'more ,it made me think of those two

They are too cute! I stamped onto watercolour paper with Archival ink,then watercoloured them with distress inks. I gave bunny a 'fluffy' tail using some puff-pen and mounted the card on to script paper 

I wanted to keep the middle of the hill paler so it didn't dominate the card with green.

I am looking forward to this years John Lewis commercial-they always are a tear jerker for me!

Have a great Thursday,see you next week!

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

I did warn you I would be back with more from the fabulous Unity My Dear set if no one bought it,and no one has-so here is another idea to stretch this lovely stamp set. 

With Christmas on its rapid way (don't groan-you have to start thinking about it soon ;-) ) I started thinking about creative gift wrapping. This set makes a perfect old fashioned gift bag

See? How cute is that? Now imagine it spilling goodies out on Christmas day...

Oh now that's my kind Christmas present! 

So all I did for this was use Staz-on to stamp onto a calico bag-simples!

Our new challenge is up-it's a lovely sketch this month,so pop on over and have a peep ;-)

Have a good end of week,

Lou x

Va Va Voom!

Surprise! 

Its Lou here,taking an unusual Saturday-just to keep you on your toes ;-)

Thank you cards. You can never have too many of them knocking around,right? Well today's card is the quickest simplest 'thank you' card ever. EH-VAH! Here it is...

See? Told you ;-) And how CUTE is that little guy?! Bet you don't know which stamp set he is from...Give up? Well,hurry as there is only 1 set left and it wont be coming back,so to get hold of it again will cost you an air fair State side (or some hefty customs ;-) ) He is from Unity's My Dear set,right here,and what a great price for these excellent quality stamps! But hurry! If no one buys this last set,I will be back next week to show you some more ideas on how cute this set is-you have been warned!

 Here he is again...

Hmm,ooh la la! So what other stamps did I use to make this. The shading is from Paper Smooches Positive Strokes (OOS for now,but will be back!) and the sentiment is from the scrummy Mama Elephant Around We Go. Voila! 

I hope you like him. Don't forget our new challenge is coming up in a few days :-)

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

Happy nearly weekend :-D

I know some of my posts can dubiously be called 'Throwback',but todays post is TRULY a throwback. I used  the gloriously vintage Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals and the not so quite as vintage Think Fast to create a card one of my favourite quotes

I know,I know-its a chicken,but it could be a seagull. If you half squint. And look from a distance ;-)

He and the fries are water coloured and the packet is paper pieced and the sentiment typed with my trusty vintage typewriter. Then a little stitching around the edge in 'fry' colour to finish it off.

Right,thats all from me-Im off to fulfill this cards demand ;-)

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello :-)

Happy Thursday-nearly the weekend-yay!

Todays card is another for one of those frequent August Birthdays,using the super cute,Mama Elephant Bootastic and its matching dies. This doesnt have to be just for Halloween-it can fit a few occasions,including an invite to a movie night,but thats another post ;-)

The speech bubble is from the Avery Elle Oh Yeah die and the Wish List is definitely NOT throwback as its from the scrummy new Altenew Thoughts and Reminders stamp set. I paper pieced the princess after stamping and colouring her Julie Nutting style,over script paper. 

Here's a close up...

I shaded parts of her dress with a pale grey copic to add some depth,and some gold Stickles to her wand and crown. See? Not a wiff of Halloween ;-)

Hope you like it,have a great end of week!

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

Its nearly the weekend! Wahoo!

August is a veeeery busy Birthday month for me,so todays card is inevitably a Birthday one ;-)

I used all Mama Elephant products- Cosmic Stars and Starry Nights,(which is currently out of stock) and the scrummy not so throwback Starburst Cover Plate to create this,plus a smattering of Frantage for some extra stars

How cute is that lion?!

The Starburst plate is mounted over some glitter cardstock and raised on pop dots to create a mini shadowbox .

Dont forget to play along with our current challenge-its a beautiful Autumnal colours one this month,and theres plenty of time left to enter :-)

Have a great weekend when it arrives!

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

I hope you are having a great day-the sun is shining and it is nearly the weekend,yay!

Todays card is made using the incredibly cute Sugar Pea Designs Love you Bunches. This is not my normal style of card,so I am on new territory here! But I just love this stamp,its so cute. I dont think there is a single little girl that has never thrust a bunch of 'weeds' into their mothers hands at some point <3

I used Avery Elle Simply Said Hello die . The image is watercoloured using Distress inks.

I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed something new!

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

Todays card is a wedding card I made for a friends wedding. Wedding cards can be tricky to not make them all about the bride,to add a bit of masculinity to them for the groom too,so I hope I got this balance right. I used WPlus9 Fanciful Feathers and dies. The sentiment is Paper Smooches We Connect,out of stock at the moment,but there are loads of alternatives in stock,have a browse.

One feather is feminine,the other masculine. Heres a closer look

Hope you like it! 

There is a new challenge just around the corner,and as always a £15 store credit for the winner-keep checking in for the details,its going to be a gorgeous one!

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello! 

Cor what a scorching day here today! Is it sunny where you are? The mounting heat and excitement from the children can only mean one thing-end of school is in sight!

This is a busy time for us card makers-trying to make sure every teacher,TA,LA subs etc are catered for and thanked. I use one set for ALL mine. It is super versatile (as are all Lawn Fawn)and can be used for many other occasions-there's still time to grab one and get making! It is,of course, A Good Apple

My card is SUPER simple,quick and easy 

Told you! How cute is that sentiment <3

I cut out a piece of black card to fit the inside of the chalkboard and stamped using the brilliant Avery Elle ink Brilliant White (out of stock right now,but back soon!) and scuffed the edges of the board with the white ink too

You can use this set to make everything you need to thank a teacher for the year-tags,cards even stamp on tissue paper for some great unique wrapping!

Hope you like it and it inspires you. 

Remember,there's still a few more days to play along with our latest challenge of CASEing an older card-its great fun to do and you can win a £15 store voucher if you are picked as winner :-) What have you got to loose?! Challenge closes at 10pm BST on Tuesday 22nd July-good luck! Just go to the top of this page to see the challenges bar and you can see full details and get DT inspiration.

Until next week,

Lou x

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

Urgh,its cold,wet and windy here today-has your sun disapeared too? I think the Tour De France took it with them when they passed through ;-) Perfect day to catch up with some Project Life weeks :-D

Today is a PL spread that I used Paper Smooches Documented Dies (which are INVALUABLE for Project Life-I use them a LOT lol) I cut a load out and keep them in a pot ready for adding to a layout,they look great glued,sewn or stapled and even stenciled. Paper Smooches have quite a few bits that can add a great touch to a page,have a look ;-)

Also used today are the awesome Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling die and Large Stitched Journaling die,which are both out of stock right now,but will be back soon!

And some closer peeps at the dies in action

I hope you like it and go check out some of the dies in the shop :-)

Lou x

Challenge 4 - Week 2

Are you playing along with our theme challenge this month?   We want you to look back at your early work - pick a card you made the first year you started to blog (or the first year you started to craft if you don't blog) and CASE it and see how different your new version is and how far your crafting style has changed.   If you are not familiar with the term CASE - it stands for Copy And Share Everything - and is just a term for "be inspired by" so you don't have do a direct copy of an old card, just see what sparks you from looking at your old work - it could be the style, the stamp (a good way to give a little love to long forgotten stash), the colours, the theme - anything.   Don't forget to share your original card with us too so we can see what sparked the inspiration.

We have more CASE Histories from our DT to share this week to inspire you if you are stuck for to play this challenge:

Lou

This was one of my first MTDS blog posts-before I even had a blog of my own! Here is the original:

And here is my new take on it:

Kate

I decided to case my first card for make the day special as that was pretty much when i started card making.
I have still used some patterned paper but just a panel, i rarely use ribbon so switched it for some twine.

Keren

Here's my original card- I was amazed that I've blogging for as long as I have- looking back was pretty embarrassing!

I took inspiration from the colours, the scenery & the sentiment placement. Hopefully you can see a little improvement!

You have until 10pm on Tuesday 22nd July to play along - just link up your projects on our Challenges page http://makethedayspecialcards.blogspot.co.uk/p/challenges.html    We'll be back next Tuesday with a final reminder and projects from the rest of the DT.   As usual there is a £15 Store Voucher up for grabs for our favourite project.

Throwback Thursday

Hello!

Hope you are having a lovely week-nearly at the weekend!

In today's post I have started what is turning out to be a massive undertaking (you know those projects-they seem like a good idea at the time,then end up being fairly mammoth? Yup,one of those)

I thought it would be a lovely idea to make my two year old niece a set of flash cards using mostly Lawn Fawn products. 

First I inked up Quinn's ABC's,as these are a great size for this,and have both upper and lower case. Then came the fun part-finding alphabetic critters :-D

(I had to use a Paper Smooches set for the Ee one. Egg would have been super easy,but my niece is highly allergic to egg,so I didn't want to include any egg type thing)

Next came the colouring! Our family uses Montessori as a teaching tool,so I used Montessori alphabet colours for all the alphas,blue for consonants and red for the vowels. I used bold un-fussy colours.

And then backing for the unsightly backs,using Lawn Fawns petite pads

So,this is the first lot. A-i. I think I will laminate them when they are all finished to make them durable.

I hope these inspire you to make some gifts for the little ones in your life!

Lou x