A Little 'Hi!'

I'm a huge fan of sending a little traditional mail every now and then and what's nicer than receiving a handmade card - especially when it's not for a special occasion? That means someone thinks you're special, right?

And luckily for me, my favourite stamps, from Lawn Fawn's Summer 2011 Release, are full of cute phrases and short sentiments, perfect for a general greeting.

I've made this card using the ticket and balloons from Admit One, a cute flower from Blissful Botanicals and a dinky sentiment from Cruising Through Life.

Why not have an afternoon creating some cards so that you have a little stock on hand? And a bit of ink on your fingers?

Destination gateway

My card today uses stamps from the Unity sets Bold Insight and All About the Journey both available from the Make The Day Special shop.

I stamped the gates on to an alcohol inked background before cutting them out. I added them to the card along with some sequin waste and flowers.

The sentiment was then stamped straight on to the card using black Versafine ink which is one of my favourites for stamping detailed images and sentiments.

Materials used:

Papermania cardstock, Making Memories paper.

Ranger alcohol inks, Ranger Archival ink, Versafine ink, Unity stamps (as above)

Prima flowers, Stickles, Crafty Notions Rainbow Drops

paper roses, sequin waste

Thanks for visiting!

Simple Saturday

Since my cardmaking breakthrough last week, I've been embracing the 'clean and simple' with the help of the Sophie's Sentiments stamp set. Who would have thought that a simple (though lovely) little sentiment set could change the way I feel about cardmaking?

I've made a few this morning, but this one's my favourite. I stamped directly onto my ribbon using Stazon - no bleeding of the ink! Hurrah!

Have a good weekend folks x

Clean & Simple Card Making

Just popping in to show off a little card I made for one of my bestest friends this week. She's had a little girl and I felt that something appropriately pink and pretty was in order.

I'm still developing my style as a cardmaker, but I am finding that 'clean and simple' seems to work well for me, so I kept it simple and used my new Sophie's Sentiments set.

This one sentiment actually uses three stamps from the set, but there's lots of ways the sentiments in the set can be combined and they're extremely easy to line up correctly. A couple of additional embellishments and I was done.

Simple. And...um...clean :)

Thinking Of You!

My new sets of stamps from Make The Day Special arrived this week, don't you just love good mail days? I swooned a little when I opened them!

Today I'm sharing just one of the projects I've used them on this week - a little card for my sister who's a bit fed up with being ill and off work. A 'Get Well Soon' card didn't seem appropriate but, luckily, the Sophie's Sentiments set from Lawn Fawn has something that will work for almost any card.

I've used the 'Thinking Of You' sentiment, along with one of the stamps from the Naturally You set - which is just peeking out behind the embellishments. (This set is only available in stores, so snap yours up and be the envy of all your friends!) So simple, but oh so lovely.

Hello. Hi. How Are You?

I'll be the first to admit that I've never really been much of a card maker, but I'm determined to use up some of my smaller scraps and conquer my fear of small (design) spaces by making some cards. So, in an attempt to make life easier for myself, I've been designing mini cards.

These dinky, little cards have a canvas size smaller than an ATC, so filling up the space is a lot easier than when you're designing a traditionally sized card - especially when you have such beautiful stamps to hand.

For the first, I simple stamped a quote from the delicious All About The Journey collection, added some scraps of paper and a hand rolled fabric rose. All done in less time than takes to make a cup of tea.

The second features one of the suitcase stamps from the A Girl & Her Adventures collection but once again I've used it almost as a background stamp and it's made a plain bit of card into an 'oh so pretty' piece of patterned paper and adds a shabby chic, vintage touch. A couple of stickers and embellishments later and I was done.

Two of the easiest cards I've ever made, yet easily two of my favourites.

Go Confidently Into 2011

What's more appropriate for the New Year than a little Thoreau? Could this quote be any more apt for those of us making resolutions, wanting to change our lives and hoping to acheive our dreams?

For this week's project, I decided to make a New Year's card. I wanted to remind a very special friend that her dreams are within her grasp if she follows her heart, confidently, in the direction of her dreams.

To make the card, I've used a quote stamp from the All About The Journey and, to add a little pattern to a scrap strip of cardstock, I've also used the suitcase stamp from the Melody Ross A Girl & Her Adventures set. It works really well as a 'background' stamp for smaller areas.

Now card making is definitely an area of crafting that I still feel a little out of my depth in, so I'm resolving to make 2011 the year I master my card making!

Have you got any crafting or stamping resolutions this year? We'd love to hear them.

Clair x