Niche Launch

Last Thursday saw the launch of the Niche Market - a group of entrepreneurial women hoping to help each other and various charities with our main charity being KIFAD UK.  One of our members has a personal link with the charity and you can't help but be inspired by her enthusiasm and passion for the projects they are undertaking.

My friend Jo's house was decked with bunting in Navy, Pink and Gold and I made a set of cards with a bunting theme for a raffle prize.  Here are close-ups of the cards with the various sentiments.

 As well as the bunting, the cards also featured enamelled birds die cut with the Memorybox Meadow Bird die, WMS Postcards and sentiments from various WMS stamp sets.

The envelopes and insides were stamped with a stamp from my friend Jaine's set Fun of the Fair from Sarah Hurley Special Editions.

 If only I had been faster posting I could have entered this in ColourQ Challenge #295.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment,

Kate

Tea Party

A last effort for the June PJ Party at Waltzingmouse today I think.  Since I had some plaid left over from the previous project, I thought I'd attempt this brilliant Bedtime Sketch.  As I was making the tablecloth I thought of the WMS Afternoon Tea and Afternoon Tea Sentiments sets.  So I thought I'd stamp and cut a green folk art kettle.  There's no time now, but I intend to glossy accent the kettle to get that old fashioned enamel look.  I'll post another photo here when I've finished it hopefully.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate

In a Jam

Waltzingmouse has its June PJ Party on at the moment and one of the challenges is Can it - to make a project involving Canning or Jam Jars.  Great, I thought - finally get to use the WMS Jam Jar Stamps and Dies which I've had for ages but haven't actually got around to using yet.  I didn't feel like doing Christmas cards and I don't have Jam Jar Fillers (I thought I had it, it must have been out of stock when I ordered the others) so I used the spots border stamp from the Gingham and Co set to fill the Jam Jar and stamped the sentiment from Big Berry Strawberry to stamp on the label shape.  I just used the pad to paper technique to colour the lid and used the Jam Jar Fillers Cut Files to cut the wee tag which I stamped with a sentiment from Opera Tags Stamps. 

I knew I wanted to set off the jam jar with a checked tablecloth so I stamped the tablecloth with the Cabin Plaid Backgrounder stamp and cut a scalloped square which I cut on the diagonal.  Then I had the idea of making an easel card and using the table cloth to prop the card open.

As you can see it still folds flat for posting and a strawberry DP stops the card front from looking too empty.  Once the design was done, they're quite quick to make so I'm making up a few more for end of school thanks you cards.

When looking at it from a distance I wasn't happy with the square corners so I've rounded them off.  I think it looks better what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Freshly Cut Roses

I am loving this WMS Old Country Roses set, and have been playing around with it a lot.  It took me a while to find some inks I was happy with, but in the end I settled on Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks.   I tried to find a third colour for the middle but in the end I stuck with just 2 colours.  For the leaves I used Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Crushed Olive Distress Inks.

I used the free cut files to cut a whole sheet of roses and leaves in different sizes and set about stamping them so I have a whole batch of flowers ready to add to future projects.  

I also used the cut files provided with the WMS Vintage Postcards set to cut a sheet of postcards and set about stamping those as well so I have a few of them to add to future projects as well.  I stamped the penny stamp in Victorian Velvet and embossed it so it had a raised detail like a real stamp.

The great thing about making your own backgrounds is that you don't need to worry about matching up colours.  I stamped the background with WMS Pinstripe Backgrounder using the Tattered Rose Distress Ink et voila - a perfect match for the roses.  However it still looked a little bare so I overstamped it with the Katzelkraft Mini 09 stamp - cities of the world.  

As it's June PJ party time over at the WMS Blog, I'm entering this card in the Old Pyjamas challenge.

Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Funky Bouquet

A friend's mother needed a Get Well card for her best friend who was hospitalised.  She wanted something bright and colourful to cheer her bedside up and I could think of nothing more cheerful than the flowers in the WMS Funky Flowers set.

I found this bright DP in my stash and stamped and die cut the funky flowers in colours to match. Since it was for a bedside I knew I wanted to make an easel card, but I also thought it would be nice if the flowers floated in the air so I attached some of them with acetate strips.  The sentiment is from WMS Asian Gardens.

It's bulky, but still folds flat for posting and as my friend's mother is in the U.K. post friendly was important.

As it's Waltzing Mouse Stamps PJ Party time I'm entering this card in the Old Pyjamas challenge.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate

Boys and their Toys

I made this card for one of Simon's friends.  The car travels along the "road", owing to a very simple slider mechanism I devised.   The image is from WMS Half Pint Heroes.  I used the cut files provided to cut the car, but I modified it slightly to leave more space for the little dude in the car.  I then cut around the head afterwards - easier than fussy cutting the whole thing and neater too.

For the inside I decorated it with bunting spelling out his friend's name and another punched grass strip.

I used the same mechanism on a previous card I made last month, and some people asked me how I did it so I took a few photos during construction.

Firstly I cut a track from a piece of card, the same width as my card.  I used my cameo but you could use a craft knife.  Keep the cut out piece to attach to the card front.  Since this piece of card will be a road on my design I've used Black Soot DI to colour the card.  I've also used the cameo to cut a dashed line through the middle for the road markings.

Decorate the card front and attach the strip from previous step to the card front so that it lines up with the track.  Since there was still some white visible through the track I went over this area with Black Soot DI.  

Attach dimensional tape the length of the car.  Obviously this has to be thinner than your track.

I sandwiched the road piece between my stamped and coloured car and a second car I cut using the cut files but I cut this down so there was room for the dimensional tape around it.

Finally I added the road to the card front and finished decorating it.  The Bon Anniversaire sentiment from WMS French Country was perfect as he is French speaking and it fitted perfectly on the Memorybox Marshmallow Cloud !!!

Its time for the June WMS PJ Party and I'm linking this card up to the old Pyjamas challenge.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate

Easel does it

I stamped and die cut some of these women from the Sizzix/Hero Arts Style is Eternal set.  I wanted to practice my colouring since I had just taken possession of some new Promarkers.

I made some easel cards up with sentiments I thunk up and created with word art.  

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate