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  I thought I would share with you another set of cards and technique that Learned recently on the Creative Card Retreat I attended. I am catching up with some of the presentations still and this tutorial came from one of the Creative team Jackie Bolhuis. These are the cards I made and the envelopes to match and you may just be able to see the inside decoration for the end card in the photograph! The cards look really striking in the new bright in-colours and you simply cut four circles in different graduating sizes using a circle punch - I used my layering circles dies. The you cut them in half on your trimmer. Then arrange. So this is how I layered up my half circles and then the photograph belo shows how I arranged them onto the card. Then simply add a sentiment to the card. The bright colours look great with black but what about trying pastels or a gradient of the same colour, or even glitter card - what about stitched circle dies? Lots and lots of variations and combinations with

My little craft room has a fishy theme with fish curtains and pictures and so when I saw the Whale of a Time stamp set with matching punch in the catalogue I had a little think about how to use it to decorate. The papers that go with the set make great backgrounds. Of course - The set can also ne used to make cards. The card above is a small square notecard and I made it using the papers cur into waves following the lines of the pattern by hand - then I stuck the paper so that I could hide the little whale down into the card. Then I made 8 little note cards and decorated envelopes to match. I used two shadow box frames joined on one side with magnet closures at the other to make a cute box to present them in.  I may need to put something across the corners as they keep falling out! I have made a video on how to make the shadow box frames and box but I am waiting for a visit to a friend to be able to upload it as my internet is lacking!!  Take care  JoP x

Two cards to show off today - They both make use of the lovely mosaic papers from stampin up - this will be retiring soon. The lovely humming birds are cut out of one of the papers and the striped mosaic pattern is crazy in the background. If you scroll to the bottom of this post I have put a photo of the papers I used in the pack.I just cut around the humming birds with scissors and glued them to the front. The Thank you sentiment is mosaic lettering and is from the co-ordinating stamp set and the little round mosaic pieces and flower pieces are also in the stamp set and cut using a 3/4 inch and 1/2 inch circle punch. Two flower jewels added to finish off. This card I used the flower/butterfly sheet from the set and cut out additional images of the flower, butterfly and leaf and layered them on the top with dimensionals. A flower jewel finishes it off. You can see the layering better in the photo below. A close up of both of the card showing layering and small elements added.  The col

To keep friends entertained I sent out some little cards a couple of weeks ago and had such a lovely response - its so nice keeping in touch and receiving bits and bobs in the post isn't it! The above card was some retired butterfly paper which had the added bonus of being able to be coloured in once assembled. The puzzle had to be built before changing it into a card. I had taken the photo of another puzzle card I sent out using the mosaic madness paper  but lost the photo so here is the photo on the instructions!- this has a lovely plastic feel to it so it feels like mosaic and made a great puzzle - use the puzzle dies to make this- makes any picture or photograph into a puzzle - I use it a lot! (see past christmas cards) This set also has lovely little flower charms to go with it. I have now run out of all mini glue dots but these were self adhesive so great to send out with the puzzle kits.  Mosaic Madness is the choice of bundle to go with and I think its a really good choice

These cards I made with some designer series papers I love and have stashed for a couple of years - they are very jungle and so go really well with these stamps. Originally conceived as a baby set these papers give the set a new lease of life as every day fun cards. They still work as a different kind of baby card though! I cut a heart in this paper to let the giraffe head pop through! I really like the leaf die it could be equally used in flower cards. The Giraffe print background die in this set was used twice to create the background on this card and I followed the card I made on Tuesday fromm the catalogue but just changed the paper and elements a little bit - before you know it you have a completely different card! The Rhino card I just turned it all around! The die cut leaves in this set are also very useful. I hope you are all well and sane - and feeling inspired! I'm off to make some bookmarks for friends, it is so nice sending out little bits in the post to surprise people

I had another go with Animal Outing stamp set and this time I used a background stamp to make the background 'splodge' spell checker wants me to write 'splurge' haha!  I cased these two cards on Pinterest but changed them up a little. The splodge was from an old retired set I have called Touches of Texture but the person who made the original card used a stamp set that is still available in the catalogue called Artisian Textures. You stamp once with the ink and then (without re-inking) stamp again a little bit higher up for a two tone effect. The stamped images are then cut out using the dies before gluing to the card fronts. The sentiments are from the stamp set also and I cut these out using the Stitched Rectangles dies. If you reposition these dies you can more or less cut any size of rectangle or square that you need and I do this after the sentiment is stamped so I can see where I am going The Thank You Big Time sentiment I also used with the Dino cards as it works

I got a little bit braver for day 7 and put two dinos onto a dino covered background paper. I pinched the sentiment from another stamp set called 'Animal Outing' because I wanted to make some thank you cards and I was making a whole bunch of cards using the animal outing set. (which I will put up on my blog for tomorrow.) Here are a few more I made for the hall supplies as they are getting low! I have a boxful at our hall lobby so people can come and get them rather than go out shopping. I have a few orders as well!! Happy Easter everyone! JoPx

Day one of Dino week. Dino cards made using the lovely Dino bundle - a stamp set and dies. Check out my kit in a box page for a special offer on extra bits and pieces I will throw in with the bundle to make 6 cards, including dino designer series papers. Of course you can use the kit however you like and I already have an idea on another way to use it - so that will be on my blog at the end of the week. I'm also going to work hard on seeing if I can post a short video to go with it. Its not easy as I will have to do it all on my phone, including editing and it has to be quite short to enable me to upload it as I do not have fast broadband in the area I live in and so I have to sit outside the co-op and upload!!  For this card here are some instructions: Fold cardstock in half (card base measures 14cm x 21cm and folded in half. Card size is 14cm x 10.5cm) Cut designer series paper to 0.5cm smaller - so measures 13.5cm x 10cm.  Using the triangles cut-out die cut out two pieces in a

THIS week is going to be Dino week! I have 7 cards to show you one for every day and I have added a Kit Box to my Kits page for April. You order from me the Dino Days stamp set and Dino Dies as a bundle (which is 10%off buying them separately) for £47.50 and I will add some supplies to make 6 cards including a piece of each of the 6 designs of co-ordinating paper.  You can either order online with the April hostess code and I will send the kit pieces, including envelopes, along separately or you can order by emailing me and paying direct to bank and I will post it all to you in a little box. See my kit page for details of the April box and how to buy. You only buy the bundle - the kit pieces are free if you use the hostess code when you buy. In the meantime day 1 of Dino cards week starts on Monday. Also check out my online store - Stampin Up have made some changes so it is looking all different and shiny! While you are there go to the clearance rack and see if there is still the exce

Recently I sent out some little kits to customers and friends. I used the puzzle pieces dies to cut up some Designer Series paper into a little puzzle and then put in instructions on how to turn the made up puzzle picture into a card by backing onto cardstock and then onto a card base. I had two designs the first was using some black and white paper that was free with Sale-a-bration last year and had the extra bonus of being able to be coloured in if you wanted to.  The second design was using the Mosaic Mood speciality designer series paper - this has a shiny coating on one side of the paper making it look like little mosaic tiles. I used the puzzle piece from the puzzle pieces dies to make the greeting. Both fairly simple designs once you have assembled the puzzle - which may have been tricky as there is no picture guide to go by!! If you received one of these I hope you enjoy making the puzzle, making the card and sending it to someone. It is so nice to get happy post and I hav

I hope this little card brings a smile to your face! I have just made 75 to post around the neighbourhood with my telephone number. However most people around here are pretty used to being fairly isolated and shop in bulk as the local small shop is 6 miles away, and bigger stores further still. In any case its lovely to see the occasional dog walker when I am out with Wallace and nature has brought us some fabulous sunshine - I do hope you get the opportunity to sit out somewhere. My much larger garden is producing all kinds of plants that I don't know what they are and I am enjoying seeing them coming up and identifying them. We started out with swathes of snowdrops under the weeping willow, then early daffodils and crocus. Now there are primroses mostly yellow along the hedgerows but every colour you can think of in the garden. I also have a flowering Camelia - I am writing it all down in my notebook so I can remember and don't accidentally pull anything up. There are a

x  I really like the Birthday Bonanza Stamp set and having dies to match is a bonus! The dies don't just cut out the little animals. There is a lion, a toucan and a Koala in this set!  They also cut out some banners as you can see in this photo, and a tag which is really handy for cards and tags. I used the tag die to cut the aperture in this shaker card. I cut out the 'Happy Birthday' greeting by hand - I just followed the curves of the sentiment. If you spend £45.00 during Sale-a-bration you can choose something from the Sale-a-bration offering for FREE and I chose the Metallic Bakers Twine and Sequins Combo Pack to go with this set. The sequins are striped and in blue, yellow and orange and so they go really well and the bakers twine is sparkly in blue and yellow. The sequins are my shaker 'fodder' in this card.  The best image in the Birthday Bonanza set has to be the tiniest one - which is the little fluff ball or star image. You can see it on this c