Be Less Miserable!

So me and some of my work friends went to see Les Miserables, and I wanted to make some little treat bags for everyone.
I have always thought Les Miserables sounded like less miserable since I was a kid, and thought I would do a play on words. I used some simple kraft luggage tags, cut these amazing mini eiffel towers on my silhoette and used some Fantastic Ribbons washi tape to add to the french theme, and then added some handwritten humour!

I used some envelope sleeves for the sweets, and did a little mix of haribo, malteasers and cadburys buttons!

Everyone thought they were really cute, and very tasty!

Vintage Ribbons and buttons

Over at Addicted to Stamps and More they are having a vintage challenge, and this fit perfectly with my lovely wallpaper I got from my dad. This amazing floral panel is cut straight from a border, and all I had to do was add the ribbon and button! I made the ribbon flower but cutting a 1.5inch circle, adding strong double sided tape and folding the ribbon on itself (think I may do a tutorial on this when I have more time) and then securing with a staple in the centre, then I added a button and some twine. The little sentiment is an art deco one from the front of a Docrafts magazine my MIL bought me for Christmas. I hope you like this, and I also hope that my photography is improving, I've been reading the tutorials over at Damask Love, and I hope they're working!
This card is also being entered into the A Blog Named Hero - Vintage challenge and Make My Mondays Ribbon and buttons challenge

CASual Fridays and Simon Says

Here is my take on this weeks CASual Fridays B&W+1 challenge, and the Simon Says Stamp arrows.
The numbers are Bananafrog, the arrow is from a tiny We R Memory Keepers set, and the sentiment is from Stampendous ribbon builder. I also snuck in a waltzingmouse teeny tree star because the gap between my arrow and numbers was too big!

To play along with CASual fridays just look here.

Simon Says Stamp -Use an Arrow

Vintage Paris

For my lovely friend Kirstys birthday I wanted to get out of my usual leafy tree comfort zone. (Kirsty is always joking about my green/tree obsession!) My dad, who owns a wall paper company, had given me a pattern book which had some beautiful vintage Paris images, and I knew this was what I would use. I also wanted to put my silhouette through its paces, and had a few digital clothes mannequin images I wanted to play around with. I had to remove some of the tiny cutting areas I thought were just too small, but I was so pleased with how it turned out! I cut one of the vintage papers with my Spellbinders Labels 4 die, and then layered it onto some kraft which I cut by tracing round the same labels 4 die and then hand cutting. It gives a much thinner layer behind the paper. I stamped an art deco birthday greeting (its a really old wooden one, no idea where from) onto some more kraft and die cut on my cuttlebug with a PTI Fillable frame die. The ribbon is some VVRouleux teal stripe ribbon which I got from QVC last year. The wallpaper is Galerie Memories, and has the most beautiful images. I have a number of card ideas that I'm working on for these papers, including making an Eiffel Tower cut file!





If you fancy any of these beauties on your walls then have a look here.

Valentines Silhouette

So today is Valentines day. To be honest we don't celebrate it as a couple. Never have. We have our own 'special days' to remember, and I'm such a skin flint the idea of going to a restaurant, eating an over priced meal, and receiving flowers where the price has bee hiked up isn't romantic at all.

But I do think it's a great opportunity for singles to take the plunge and let someone know they may like them, and for new couples to be romantic!

I have been playing around with my new Silhouette Portrait and trying to create some of my own digital files, and decided to make a valentines inspired piece.

I was also asked by one of my closest friends to make her a card to give to her boyfriend for valentines, which is quite strange, as I normally only make cards for myself to give, but its lovely to know that she trusted me to make her a card!

 Designed by moi, cut on my silhouette.

Fantastic Ribbons Design Team Bows

So this month the challenge for the design team was to do something fantastic with bows! Easy, right?!!
Well I think its fair to say everyone can tie a simple bow (although getting it to sit right on a card isn't always easy), but I decided to do something a little different.

This is a tiered bow.

The great thing about this type of bow is that you can use up all your scrap pieces of ribbon.

I used 3 different types of ribbon, varying lengths and widths, and used some white cotton thread to tie them together, as I was putting an embellishment over them. You could just as easily use another piece of ribbon to tie them together to get a nice neat finish. Think I'll try that on another card!

 Here it is on the card, and I put a length of the main ribbon along the card too.

The card is for our next door neighbours who have just had their first little one, and I cut the name on my Silhouette Portrait. The concentric circle stamps are Waltzingmouse Teeny Trees, and the Special delivery date stamps are from Post Marks PTI, and the Welcome little one is from a Hero Arts Baby set. Ribbon is from, of course, Fantastic Ribbons
Blue organza Polka dot
Teal gingham
White satin

Less is More Kraft and Cream

To celebrate the 2nd Anniversary of the Less is More challenge there is a Kraft and Cream theme. I love Kraft, and I love CAS, so this was always going to be easy!

The stars are cut from handmade cream paper using my cuttlebug star die cuts. The sentiment and the stitching was stamped in versamark and then heat embossed with white embossing powder. Both stamps are from the Stampendous Ribbon Build a Border set.

This card is also being put forward for

Thanks for your comments.

Waltzingmouse DIY Washi Tape Challenge

This week Claire over at Waltzingmouse Stamps has done a great tutorial on making your own washi tapes, which is so much fun! She also set a challenge to make your own Waltzingmouse inspired washi tape, which I've done for my card today.

First thing I did was add some double sided tape to some white tissue paper (I used some which I'd saved from some crockery we were given) and then I stamped various little Teeny Trees images along the length of the tape.

The top 3 are for this card, but I wanted to try some of the other cute stamps too, and have a couple of cards in mind already for these to be use these on. I will say that the tissue bleeds the ink a bit, so the birds at the bottom have no detail, but apart from that the tissue is fine.

Next I stamped some cracked sapphire distress ink onto some white card using the largest concentric circle stamp from Teeny Trees. I also cut some numbers on my Silhouette Portrait and stamped the smallest concentric circle stamp onto the top layer.

Both stamps used Cracked Sapphire, but I wanted a more subtle background, and so I blotted the ink on some scrap paper before stamping onto my background card. You can see from the next photo though that I got distracted (my CD stopped) and I forgot to blot and there's a random dark circle!! 

I tried to incorporate it into my design, but the size of the numbers meant it didn't work. I was able to still do my 5x5 card though by cutting it off (but it won't go to waste, I'll use it for another card).

I finished off by layering everything up and adding the lovely DIY washi tape.

This is being entered into Waltzingmouse DIY Washi Tape,  CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge#10, Make My Monday - Masculine.

Hope you have a go at making your own Washi Tape!