My new baby nephew!

We received news last Thursday that my adorable nephew, Eli,  had been born – very exciting!! His parents (my sister-in-law and brother-in-law) live in New Zealand, so I wanted to get his prezzie and card together to send to them as soon as possible! I actually made it and sent it off on the weekend, but I haven’t had a chance to write about it on my blog and show the pictures until now.

After seeing the lovely Sarah Klass’ baby card last week, I decided to use the elephant from the Nursery Necessities stamp set to create a line of elephants, holding each others’ tail! I wanted to make a card as well as a personalised frame that could be used in the nursery.

Here is the frame that I created:

I also made a matching card using the same elephant stamp and featuring his name again:

(Sorry about some of the photos and the irregular colours between photos… I’m still playing with my new found techniques in GIMP!! Any advice on how to make the photos more uniform??)

Aren’t those little elephants just adorable!! So cute!! Thanks for the inspiration, Sarah!

I have been enjoying checking out photos of my new little nephew and he is just adorable too! Not sure when we will get to see him, as we’re not sure when we will be back in NZ, but we’re enjoying seeing photos and will hopefully have some “virtual’ cuddles via Skype soon!

“Eli’s Card & Frame”
Stamps: Nursery Necessities, Jumbo Outline Alphabet
Paper: Kraft, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Baja Breeze Patterns DSP
Ink: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Basic Black
Accessories: Baja Breeze Double Stitched, Hemp Twine, White Gel Pen, Circle Scissors Plus, Word Window Punch

So happy for you!

My lovely friend Tam has just told us that she is expecting a little one soon, so I put together a little something for her to say how excited I am about her good news!

I made a little card for her using my Nursery Necessities stamp set and some lovely baby colours – Barely Banana, Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink!

I decided to make a little row of cute baby birds using these soft pastels and also tied the colours in with my Spring Fling DSP (sadly now retired). I added some Very Vanilla Ribbon (this is nearly the same colour as the Barely Banana card) and rounded the corners as well. A cute and simple little baby card!

I’ve had a super busy week with kids returning to school, running laps around the classroom and staying up late prepping work all week! This weekend hasn’t been too busy though, so I have had a little bit of time to stamp today and should have some time tomorrow. I will try to show you those in the next couple of days!

“So Happy For You”
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Paper: Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Spring Fling DSP (retired)
Ink: Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink
Accessories: Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, Corner Rounder Punch, Scallop Border Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

Sweetest Day + M&Ms

I’m back with the kid’s Sweet Treat card I promised! This one was a lot of fun to make – lots of Bold Brights (my favourite colours… not!). But it is perfect for a fun kid’s card, or even for a grown up who is a kid at heart!

My colour scheme was matched to the M&Ms and is made up of Real Red, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore and Pacific Point! Very bright!

I started with a square card of Green Galore which measures just under 11cm square (it was one A4 piece of card, folded in half and then cut to be square). For the main panel, I stamped my gumball machine in Pacific Point and added it to layers of Real Red, Yoyo Yellow and Only Orange. I stamped the sentiment in the different inks and then cut out the different words to make a multi-coloured sentiment. I added a couple of buttons (that orange button is officially Pumpkin Pie, but it was a close enough orange for this card!) which I threaded with different colour card strips and then popped my M&Ms into a Sweet Treat Cup.

Of course, I had to make a pull tab again to keep the card in one piece while the recipient goes for the chocolate, so I added a tab at the top with some Real Red Polka Dot Ribbon that you can pull up like so:

… until your chocolates are released through the hole on the inside.

I also did something a little different with this card and made a background for the Sweet Treat Cup so that when the chocolates were eaten, the card still looked nice. This is what it looks like when the cup is empty:

I just punched a 1 3/4″ Circle in Whisper White, stamped it with the different round gumball stamp in the matching colours, and then stuck it to the tab so that it can be seen when the tab is pushed back in!

Well, I think the Sweet Treat Cups might get a rest for a few days now! I was back to school today, so might have to take the stamping easy for a few days while I get everything ready for the kids to come back on Monday.

Although I still have to prep my Shoebox Swap for our ‘A Klass Act’ Team Day on Saturday, so I will definitely be back after that to share some ideas from our get together. Looking forward to it!

“Sweetest Day M&Ms”
Stamps: Something Sweet
Paper: Real Red, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore, Pacific Point, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Green Galore, Pacific Point
Accessories: Sweet Treat Cups, 1 ¾” Circle Punch, Playground & Sherbet Buttons, Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Hole Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

Sweet Little Baby

I have been enjoying having a bit of a play with my Sweet Treat Cups and Something Sweet stamp set from the current Summer Mini (-> check out the Summer Mini here!)

I bought a variety of different lollies and treats to fill my Sweet Treat Cups with, and then let the colours of the lollies determine my colour scheme for my card!

My first selection of lollies were some Fruit Mentos that were a range of pastel colours. I pulled out my Stampin Up! colours and matched them up to be Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink and Apricot Appeal. I thought these colours would be perfect for a baby card, and this also gave me an opportunity to use the rattle stamp from my Something Sweet set!

I used a base of Barely Banana card and stamped the rattle handle in Pretty in Pink and cut it out. I added a strip of Pretty in Pink to the bottom and punched it with the Scallop Border Punch. I tied some Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon around the bottom and added some faux stitching in White Gel Pen. I needed a little something in the bottom corner so I stamped some little hearts from the Something Sweet set in VersaMark on Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink and Apricot Appeal card and cut them out as well.

I wanted to make an access so that the lollies could be eaten without breaking the whole card, so I made a slide tab on the inside, so that when it is pulled, the lollies can be found and then it could also be filled up again!

Here’s the inside of the card:

And here is what happens when you pull the tab:

Yay! Lollies are released! I love these Sweet Treat Cups because they are very easy to use and are so much fun! They would be great for special cards for little people, as well as not so little people!

I have another Sweet Treat card to share with you tomorrow, using some different stamps from the set, so pop back for that!

“Sweet Little Baby”
Stamps: Something Sweet
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Apricot Appeal, Whisper White
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, VersaMark
Accessories: Sweet Treat Cups, Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Border Punch, White Gel Pen, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

Bookmark Gifts

It was the last day of school for the kids on Friday, so I made some little prezzies to say thanks and goodbye to my class! We had a fun day together, watching a movie and I took some snacks and treats along for them. I decided to make a bookmark for each child, with their initial on it, and then put it in a pack with some Christmas goodies! Nothing says teacher’s gift like a bookmark to encourage them to read!!

These bookmarks turned out really cute, and they were pretty simple to make. I stamped a whole sheet of cardstock with different images for the boys and girls, then cut them into strips, punched out the initials with my Circle Punches and then put it altogether with some ribbon for the top. I also added a little message to the back of each bookmark for each child.

Here are the boys’ bookmarks:

I used the star stamps from the Starring You stamp set and the initials are made using the Big Deal Alphabet stamps. I used Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip and Pacific Point for the boys’ bookmarks.

The girls’ bookmarks are below:

For these, I used the swirl from the Season of Joy stamp set with flowers from the Simply Said stamp set. I made these ones in nice girly colours – Regal Rose, Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant and Pink Pirouette.

These are the packs that I made up with some Christmas chocolates and candy canes:

I’m back to the crafting table now to finish off some cards and prezzies for our family Christmas get together tonight!

I’ll be back with some more cards and Christmas tags soon…!!

Inkspirations Inspiration Challenge #14

I have been a bit busy and haven’t had a chance to get to making challenge cards this week, but I just realised that the card I made the other day for my nephew fits pretty well with Keesh’s Inspiration Challenge for this week!

I thought I would re-post it here for that challenge, but hopefully I will have time to make another one before the challenge closes… I will see how I go!

Here’s the inspiration picture:

Check out those great boys colours with the greens and blues! I will try to pretend that I was channelling Keesh’s inspiration when I made the card, but I think it is also that these are the boys colours I usually go for! I know the bedspread is very stripey, but if you have a look at the top of it where it folds over, and the base sheet, they are actually very spotty! Just like my Good Morning Sunshine DSP below! So I can say that was my inspiration!!

Well, I will stop making excuses now and try to make another card to submit as well! So I don’t feel so bad about re-posting! I just wanted to be involved!!

Thanks for the inspiration, Keesh!

“B is for Birthday”
Stamps: Party Hearty
Paper: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Good Morning Sunshine DSP
Ink: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, VersaMark
Accessories: Baja Breeze Striped Ribbon, Baja Breeze Corduroy Brad, 3/4” Circle Punch, Stampin Dimensionals