Tuesday Trigger - Fall is in the Bag

This is my second post today. For my For Your Inspiration post, please scroll down.

Hello!

Around here, Fall (or Autumn, as we like to call it) is well and truly in the bag, we're about to launch into Summer and the heat is already here. Fall is in the Bag is the theme of the Tuesday Trigger challenge over at Moxie Fab World.  The trigger photo is a handbag:

I looked at this handbag and immediately thought of one of my favourite little stamp sets, Stampin' Up! Trendy Trees. I love the colours on this bag. I wish I had this bag myself. *smile*

I made the mistake of going to visit the first few entries to the challenge before I started my card. Gee, there are some awesome cards on show there already! I almost scared myself out of making my card, but then decided I'd tough it out and make my card anyway.

My card is this one:

I had some troubles getting a decent angle on the photograph to show you the depth of the card. The front cream panel is adhered to a brown panel, which is popped up on top of the brown card base. The brown sentiment strips are popped up again. Brown doesn't photograph so well when you are trying to show the layers. Here are a couple of other photos.

The background was fun to make. I actually enjoyed lining all those little trees up and choosing which colours would go where. For a change, I used my stamp positioner, and pencil lines to keep things on track. The colours I used were (SU!): Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Not Quite Navy. The button is out of my mending box. I really hope I don't need it for a particular item of clothing!

Thanks for coming to visit!

Michelle
xxx

Framed One Layer

Hello!

I'm so excited to be back stamping!  I've had a few weeks off as a result of getting a cough that turned into bronchitis.  You'd think all those sick days at home would be a blessing in disguise (more stamping time), but the tyranny of illness is that I just didn't have the energy for much other than being still in between coughing fits.  So frustrating!

Today I wandered off to the craft show, where I didn't buy much other than tape and spritzer bottles, but I did pick up some fresh inspiration.  I returned home hoping that my family would bless me with another hour or two to myself, and they did ... without my even asking!!

The challenge I chose to work on this afternoon was the new Less Is More challenge.  Week 19 is One Layer Week and the theme is In The Frame.  You saw my first efforts at one layer cards a few weeks ago, and today I gave them another go.  I made three cards: One I quite like, one I'm still thinking about, and one that didn't work.  I'll show you them all.

The first is my challenge entry:

With this card I got a bit adventurous (for me) and made an embossed frame around my sponged image. Surprisingly, first go and I managed to get the lines to meet correctly at the corners. :-)   What I used here was White cardstock, ink colours were More Mustard, Really Rust, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, the stampset is one of my favourites, Trendy Trees.  I like the simplicity of this card, it soothes me.

The second card was the first I made, and I do like it, but I feel like it is missing something.

What I used here was White cardstock, ink colours were More Mustard, Really Rust, Old Olive.  Stampsets were Curly Cute and Organic Grace.  Curly Cute is brand new for me, and I predict I'll be using these sentiments regularly for a while!  Organic Grace I have had for a while and I have made some lovely cards with it, but it seems that I never shared those on this blog.  What an oversight, I'll have to make some more and show you!

The third card didn't work at all.  This card is for one of my little girl's friends at kindy.  She thinks it's lovely and she thinks her friend will like it too, so that is all that matters really . . . but I'm going to have to have another go at the idea in my head to see if I can make the necessary improvements to make it work as it should!

Cardstock is Very Vanilla. Ink colours are Summer Sun, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Garden Green, Not Quite Navy, and Chocolate Chip.  The stampset is Fox and Friends (which always makes me smile).

So there you have it. After a card drought of a few weeks, I have managed to put together three in one go.

So what do you think? Which is your favourite?

Michelle
xxx

JAI #53 - a bright burst of yellow

Yellow is my favourite colour.  I also love flowers.  So when I looked at the Just Add Ink inspiration challenge this week and found a beautiful sunny yellow sunflower looking back at me, I couldn't resist.  I took the flower and the colours as my inspiration.

For this challenge I went back to an old idea I had quite a while ago, of putting flowers in a flowerpot.  I still like it!  Previously I have made the flowerpot the card and put a pull-out bunch of flowers inside attached to the greeting card part.  This time I just created the flowerpot on the outside of the card so that I would have a little more space for writing inside the card, and to protect the bunch of flowers more during posting.

Eastern Blooms has been my favourite stamp set for about two years now.  I loved it when I first bought it, and I still love it.  I don't know why I keep insisting on cutting flowers out, though, since I don't love cutting out!  Probably because the end result is always so pretty.  Another favourite stamp set is Trendy Trees, which a good friend gave me as a gift after I'd oohed and aahed over it forever without actually buying it.  I have used the trees as leaves here, and the whole set is very versatile - not only as trees.  :-)

What I used (all Stampin'Up):
Stamps - Eastern Blooms, Trendy Trees
Ink - Daffodil Delight, Barely Banana, Almost Amethyst, Gable Green, Green Galore, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Green Galore
Other - Dazzling Diamonds, Daffodil Delight taffeta ribbon

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle

Notebooks

Because I was out of time before Christmas to get all my planned activities completed, I have decided that my Christmas gifts for my team at work will be "Seasons Greetings" gifts in the new year.  The thought and heart were there, but I just didn't get the time before I went on holidays to complete the project I planned instead of Christmas cards. 


For each member of my team, I have created the front inside cover of a notebook.  I will write a personal message on the back of this cover for each person, and they will then have my greetings as well as a notebook which will (hopefully) be more useful than a Christmas card, and might even last all year.


Here they are:

They are all different.  I have a particular favourite, but I won't tell you, so that you can choose your own!


I hope you like them, and I hope my team likes them too.  :-)

Here are the larger photos of each.