Simply Stampin Challenge

The simply Stampin Challenge this week is from a sketch:

The sketch itself is quite simple, it is a square which I don't usually do. I wanted to use the Simply soft stamp as I love that stampset. This is what I did :

Materials used;

Cardstock: Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White.

Stamp sets: Simply Soft, Four frames, Teeny Tiny Wishes

DSP : Cheerful Treat.

The back ground was embossed with clear powder using one of the stamps from Simply Soft. The piece of Elegant Eggplant was punched around the edges with the ribbon lattice punch which is so delicate. The Designer paper was also punched and threaded through the sides of the Elegant Eggpant piece which was then stamped in Whisper White with anothe stamp from Simply Soft. The sentiment was stamped and then punched using the Decorative Label punch.

I hope that you are all enjoying the good weather. It has been beautiful all week on the South Coast  and hoping to do some gardening and go flying with hubby at the weekend.



Valley Park Crop 5th May

Hi Ladies
Our next scrapbooking , card making and 3D project event will take place on Saturday 5th May from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
During the daythere will be scrapbooking , card and 3D project demonstrations. All the materials for you to complete the projects will be provided. There will be a buffet lunch and beverages will be available  throughout the day.
The first two events have gone really well and places have sold out before each event. You will have a really fun time and take home finished projects at the end of the day.
The cost is £20 per person which includes materials, demonstrations, lunch and beverages.
If you would like to book your place please email me on margaret@margaretjones.net.
 Photos from earlier events can be seen on the events page.

Make my Monday Challenge

The Challenge over at Make my Monday this week is for either a Mother's Day card or a Thank you card with a spriong theme. I have already put a post yesterday with the card that i made for my MIL so I have done a thank you card and come up with this:

This card is similar to one in the current Stampin up catalogue and uses all the stamps from the Array of Sunshine stampset which is one of the Hostess Awards. You could get this stamp if you host a workshop and you get £150 of Stampin up orders. If you are interested in having a party please let me know.

Materials used
Cardstock: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake.
Stampsets: Array Of Sunshine, Oval All
DSP; Domestic Goddess
Ink Pads: Daffodil Delight,Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade , Wisteria Wonder.
Ribbon: Scallop Dots  Ellegant Eggplant
Punches: Decorative Label, Scallop Oval,  and two brads

Mothers Day

My Mother - in -law does not have access to the Internet so I think that I am safe to put her card up . This is not my design but I found it on Jane's website and thought it looked really good . The design could be adapted for several uses and some of these can be seen on Jane's site.

I am also going to enter this into this weeks Clean and Simple Challenge as coincidentally it just fits in with their challenge

Materials used :
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Island Indigo
DSP: Everyday Enchantment ( free as pasrt of SAB)
Punches: Heart to heart, Small heart.
Pearls to finish

Simply Stampin Challenge

Hi Ladies
The Challenge from Simply Stampin is a colour combo.

On Saturday I learnt a new technique using the very delicate dotted scallop ribbon border punch which Aly demonstrated at our Stampin up event which I wanted to incorporate into a card . This is what I produced:

I used Crumb Cake for the card  and layered a piece of Everyday Enchantment DSP on top of it. I then used a square piece of Baja Breeze and used the punch along each side but leaving the corners complete. this holds the whole piece together so that I could stamp in the centre with a stamp from the Happiest Birthday Wishes stamp. I then threaded a piece of  Crochet trim ribbon through the card . I finished it off with the Embosslits  Beautiful Wings die in Very Vanilla.

Valley Park Crop

Hi Ladies

The scrapbooking and card making event took place yesterday with 20 lovely ladies joining us for the day. We had a lovely time with a scrapbooking demo by Aly in the morning followed by a buffet lunch which got very good feedback from the ladies.

The theme for the day was birth-days with the ladies doing a layout similar to the one above. There was a selection of papers to choose from with the ladies able to choose whether they wanted to do pink or blue depending on their photos. The background was Certainly Celery and there was an assortment of embellishments to use. The interesting use of the Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch on the square piece of card at the bottom of the page will be used again in other projects. 
In the afternoon I then demonstrated a card and a box using the lovely Mocha Morning papers.

I made these a few months ago at a training day held by Jo and thought they would be great for a demo.The card uses the Elementary Elegance stamp which is part of the Sale a Bration that finishes at the end of March . You can get this stamp free if you spend £45 in the current catalogue so if you would like a stamp for free please get in contact with me. The box uses the mini milk carton die which has lots of different ways to use it.

Ladies deep in concentration, working on the scrapbooking page.

As you can see we have a digital scrapper who find similar papers to the ones we are using and does similar layouts

Our next event will be held on Saturday 5th May in Valley Park Community Centre which is  in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire. If you would like to join us please let me know.

Please come back tomorrow when I will be continuing with my blog challenges.



Ribbon shares

Hi Ladies
Would you like to buy some of  Stampin ups beautiful ribbons but don't know which ones to buy. I have decided to host a Stampin Up Ribbon Share, I need to build up my ribbon collection but I don't want to necessarily buy a roll of each...............hence this share.

This share is for all the Scallop Dots Ribbon and the Ruffled Ribbon varieties currently available in the 2011/12 catalogue as follows:

1cm (3/8") Ruffled Ribbon

Small ruffled ribbon available in  the new 2011-2013 In Colours - Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Wisteria Wonder.
You will receive 1 metre of each colour . Total of 5 metres . Total price including postage - £6.75

1.3cm( 1/2") Scallop Dots Ribbon

Grosgrain ribbon with printed white polka dots on one side and scallop edges with pinholes.You will receive 1 metre of the 10 colours available, Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip, Elegant Eggplant, Marina Mist, Melon Mambo, More Mustard, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink and Tangerine Tango. Total of 10 metres. Total price including Postage - £9.50

Heart frame

Hi Ladies

 Yesterday I said that I would show you a 3D project which would look lovely on your wall. I made this a few weeks ago and I think that I will most probally give it to my eldest daughter who has just moved into a new house with her fiance. This is not my own design but I CAsed it from Michelle and it can be found here.
It is not difficult to make but does look very effective. You do need to punch out lots of hearts in either different coloured card or papers.

I was going to put a sentiment in the bottom right hand corner but decided to leave it blank. I think that I might end up making another one or two as my youngest daughter said she would like to have one in her bedroom and it would look just right on the wall of my craft room as the white frame from Ikea goes with the white furniture from Ikea that  I bought recently. I better get the punches out and start punching out lots of hearts.

Right , the scrapbooking and cardmaking is on in Chandlers Ford tomorrow so I need to make some quiches, decorate the cupcakes that I made yesterday  and then pack everything I need for the demos . Thank goodness that I have had a couple of days off work.

Home made mini album

Hi Ladies
I had intended to take part in a card challenge every day this week, but I haven't managed to do one for today so instead I am going to share with you a mini  album that I started a few weeks ago. The technique is called Stack the Deck and was designed by Laura Denison on a blog called Following the Paper Trail  and several videos showing this technique can be found on Youtube.
The album is not finished yet as I haven't added any photos but the book itself was a delight to make . I have kept the cover of the album quite simple because  I really like the Beau Chateau papers but I may add a few embellishments later.

This is the album closed. For the cover I used Marina Mist card and a sheet from the Beau Chateau range.

The pages are made from envelopes which were then covered with two different pages from the Beau Chateau range. In between the inner of the envelopes I have made two tags, one in Very Vanilla and the other in Pink Pirouette.

This is the middle of the book which has ribbon tied around it and then it goes over the spine of the book which I will add some charms to later. This idea uses 6 envelopes which gives you 12 pages and 12 tags to decorate.
I hope that it inspires you to do something that you perhaps wouldn't normally do.
I am in the process of getting ready for a scrapbooking and card making event on Saturday and have just baked 30 + cupcakes.
Please come back tomorrow when I will show you another 3D project which would lovely on your wall.

Cas-ual Friday Challenge

Hi Ladies
The Challenge that I am entering today is from Cas-ual Friday and this is the first time that I have entered this challenge. The topic this week is a baby card so I have made a little notelet for this entry :

I love the effect the embossing has upon the cardstock.
Materials used
Cardstock:  Daffodil Delight, Very Vanilla and Bashful Blue.
Stampset: Easy Events
Punches: Decorative Label and circle punch.
Embossing Folder: Polka Dots

I stamped the image twice and cut the top of the umbrella from one of the stamps and layered it on top with dimensionals. The Daffodil Delight  cardstock gives it a lovely Spring feel to the card, just right for a baby born at this time of the year.

Clean and Simple Challenge

Hi Ladies

The challenge that I have chosen to do today is from the Clean and Simple Challenge which has produced a sketch this week.

This was a good challenge to do as I could use one of my favourite stamps Simply Soft. This is what I produced:

Materials used:
Cardstock : Whisper White, Island Indigo
Paper Stack  -Brights.
Stampsets: Simply Soft, Oval All
Punch: Scallop Oval
Ribbon: Ruffled Ribbon Island Indigo

I hope you like it , if so please pop back tomorrow to see which challenge I decide to enter.
All the materials used can be ordered from me , please contact me on margaret@margaretjones.net

Less is More Challenge

Hi Ladies

I have set myself a challenge of entering as many challenges as I can this week. Today I am entering the
Less is More challenge where the theme this week is Neutrals. I usually find the minimal approach very difficult as I like to use layers and embellishments and forget to leave  white space. So today I have kept it very simple and followed the brief and produced this:

I am quite pleased with what I produced. I punched out a circle which I used as a mask and used a Chocolate Chip ink pad to which I lightly applied with a sponge dauber . I then stamped the bird  with the Punch Pourri stampset which is now retired and the branch in black before adding the sentiment in black. The cardstock is vanilla and I have applied glitter to the bird's chest which is difficult to see in this card.
Please come back tomorrow to see which challenge I have found to enter.

Valley Park Crop

The next event that Aly and I will be holding at Valley Park Community Centre will be on Saturday 10th March from 10am - 4pm.
The format will be similar to the last one with demonstrations on scrapbooking, card making and a 3D project. All the materials to enable you to to do the projects will be supplied together with a buffet lunch and all the beverages for the day. The price is £20 and currently we have 2 places left so if you would like to join us please email me on  margaret@margaretjones.net.

We have also booked the hall for further events during the year which are :

Saturday 5th May
Saturday 9th June
Saturday 21st July
Saturday 21st September
Saturday 27th October
Saturday 1st December.

So if you would like to join us on any of those dates please let me know.

Combined Challenge

Hi Ladies

As the weather is so awful ( it's snowing heavily this afternoon) I decided to set out to see how many challenges I can enter this week . So I have found three challenges for today  to which I can enter one card.

Materials used for this card:
Cardstock: Whisper White, Early Espresso.
Stamp pads: Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Lucky Limeade,
DSP : Domestic Goddess, Paper stack in Brights.
Tools : Punches, Lace ribbon border, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border,
Stamp sets: Posy Punch  and Happiest Birthday Wishes ( Hostess)

I am entering this card to the Simply Stampin Challenge which has a sketch this week and I was really please to come in the top three for their challenge last week:

I am also entering it for the ColorQ challenge which  is a blog for a colour challenge every week and this is the first time I have entered this one:

Finally I am entering it for the St Lukes Hospice monthly challenge, this is a charity challenge which I try and enter regularly as the card then gets sent off and they sell it at one of their fund raising events. Their theme this month is spring into spring. I thought that the colours were very spring like.
 I hope that you like the card , if so please come back tomorrow to see what challenge I have found to enter.