Gatefold Card & People Watching!

Here’s a little card in honour of the approaching end of Sale-a-bration. This is a little gatefold card- you could use it this way or rotate it so the top comes over the bottom half. The flower is a paper flower made with our 5 petal flower punch. So easy.. just 3 punched flowers, dampened with water, scrunched into a small ball, then opened up and left to dry. Shape them whilst they’re wet if you want the edges curled like mine.

I’m using up the stamp set Bliss- because shortly it will be burrowing itself into the back of my cupboard in protest at not being able to be available to stampers at large! It’s such a beautiful set and I’ll be placing my last order before Sale-a-bration ends on Saturday- so please get your orders to me by then.

Will and I were busy doing lots of little things off my to-do list today. Whilst I was waiting  in the queue at the Post Office I watched the other queuers. Don’t you love  people-watching?!! From the confident young tracksuit-clad bloke who had a stagger so pronounced that I thought he’d get stuck in the aisle, the man behind who I was ready to rush out and buy him some Brut (and yes, I hate Brut, but any smell would have been better). There was a sweet old lady wanting a chat, an elderly couple  who had a brief wrangle with a bike placed in the exit door and actually got stuck temporarily both trying to get out of the door at the same time and the lovely post office assistant who tried to sell me the P.O. phone service, cash back and life assurance in the space of a minute! …and I thought my life was dull!  

Will was busy charming most people who he met, although I thought telling me very loudly in a worried voice that the man coming behind was in fact a nasty old man was probably not his finest moment. Hopefully the bloke didn’t hear him..

Ok- need to prepare tea- a very healthy tuna, spinach and ricotta pizza..hmm- wonder if anybody will eat it without actually complaining.

xx

Card recipe: Card base-Crumb cake cardstock. Other cardstock- Early espresso and Real Red. Designer paper from Love Letters and Greenhouse Gala. Ribbon- Real Red and Basic Black satin ribbon. Flower punch. Filigree brad and pearl. Stamp set-Bliss. Twill tape. Inks- Crumb Cake and Early Espresso.

Tiny Cards & Not Pancake Day!

Phew! How come it’s Tuesday so soon? I wanted to make a circular card in honour of Pancake Day but by the time I’d got half way through this quick and teensy card, I then remembered that I’d planned for it to be a circle! This card is incredibly simple and very tiny- only about 7x7cm (or 3×3″ if you understand that language!!). Sadly I think it would get lost in the post if I put it in its matching envelope but they’re a handy stand by when you need something pronto!   Stampin’Up! do 20 (8.9×12.7cm) notecards with matching tiny envelopes for £6.75 which is 33p for card and envelope. I’ve used offcuts of paper and ribbon and the little scalloped edge peeking out of the side is one of the Punch Bunch stamps from the Freebie Sale-a-bration sets and because it has a matching punch, there’s no fiddly cutting out.

I do love our punches. I had a great night taking the evening at HSNW (stamp club) and I used my punch but told the ladies they could just use their scissors. Lots of them wanted the punch for speed and couldn’t believe that it went through two thick pieces of card. I kept saying ‘its ok, you won’t break it!!’ It’s good fun being around crafters- you won’t go for long without a laugh! One lovely lady promised not to throw anything at me while I was demonstrating!!

Tonight we’re going to have a controlled pancake feast- ie- not a ‘gorge yourself stupid on as many pancakes as you can’! The kids asked for pancakes for breakfast but I decided it was a bit piggy. This post was originally entitled ‘Tiny Card and Pancake Day’ until my Mum texted to say that it wasnt in fact Pancake Day until March 8th!!! Hmmm, that’ll serve me right for listening to my kids and not checking!! Ill still let them have pancakes as they’re all looking forward to it and I do apologise in advance to any of my kids’ friends parents who are sent out to the shops in a flurry because my kids have mistakenly convinced their children that it actually is Pancake Day when in patently isnt!!! I’ve ended up with egg, or should I say pancake on my face!! I’ll get them to help me make them once they’re home from school. It reminds me of when my two eldest were little and I thought we’d have a panckae race. Not wanting to end up with soggy lumps of carbohydrate on the carpet that would invariably become squashed into the fibres, we made our own out of paper. That wouldn’t suffice today, but then, they were easier to persuade! I remember watching with hilarity as two tots staggered across the living room. They both were groaning under the weight of the frying pans and could barely lift them never mind finish the race! The only race this evening will be to get it into their mouths as quick as they can in the hope that if they finish first they might get one more. After all these years they’ve still not worked out that I actually count them so they all will have the same! This is probably a good time to go and actually check that I have enough eggs- there will be mutiny otherwise!! I’m watching what I eat today so I may just have to limit myself to sniffing them (sob,sob!)

See you soon xx

Card recipe; very Vanill, Pretty in Pink, Crumb Cake cardstock. Subtles designer paper and Nursery Suite paper. Pricking tool and Mat Pack. Curly label extra large punch, Corner Rounder and Scalloped Square Punch. Punch Bunch stamp set (SAB) and Tiny tags (hello). Basic Black and So Saffron ink. Basic Pearls and Certainly Celery taffeta ribbon.

 

Treat Cones & The Magic of Chocolate!

I’ve just arrived back after a few days away in the Lake District. Man , it was cold. So cold, in fact that it snowed last night and this morning the sight of all those peaks covered in icing sugar snow was a beautiful sight indeed. The kids were sad to go as it heralds the beginning of the end of the half term break. Ah well, back to normality!

This treat cone was a pig to photograph let me tell you! Apart from the fact it kept on falling down just as I was about to take the shot!!! We made this on Friday as one of the projects for our team training. It was following the theme of Chipboard and I wanted the girls to have projects using chipboard so they could show people at workshops and customers just how versatile it can be. We’ve covered the little scalloped edge at the bottom of the vellum cardstock pocket with it. I did think it was going to be a long session of sanding into all those intricate corners but it happens to fit perfectly with the scallop punch edge – Clever Stampin’Up!!! The star was not very well doused in glue so sadly is looking  a little baldy but the girls did a better job of covering their chipboard stars than I did!! The vellum cardstock is another fab item that’s overlooked. You get 20 sheets of very thick paper vellum for £5.95 which is just under 30 pence a sheet and I’ve not seen any quite that thick before. You can’t see but we mimicked the ‘doily’ look which is so big at the moment using our large medallion stamp and Stazon White Opaque on the vellum pocket. You could buy many of these items and get yourFREE Sale-a-bration stamp set and this promotion is about to end (Feb 28th) so don’t be too slow…

This week we’ve done lots of walking - there’s a lovely forest walk that we all do when in the Lake District called ‘Whinlatter’. It was pretty empty as in Liverpool we appear to have had a different half term date to everyone else in the country. Little Will started complaining towards the end of the walk so we produced a little slab of magic chocolate to enable him to finish the course. It nearly had the desired effect and we just about avoided carrying him!! I find chocolate has a similar effect on me too- although I have cut down significantly and am trying out the lesser known power of ‘bananas’! It appears to be somewhat less potent in its effect but my body is thanking me for the switch!

Need to go and fight with an agressive looking pile of washing in the kitchen…aaahhh that end of the holiday reward!

Project recipe: Treat cone- Designer paper- subtles. Sweet and sour paper. On board chipboard shapes. Vellum cardstock, Stazon black and white Opaque. Stamp Set- Tiny Tags and Medallion stamp. Pumpkin pie taffeta ribbon and Rich Razzleberry grosgrain for the handle. Linen thread. Cosmo glitter. Basic Rhinestones. Very Vanilla cardstock

Chipboard Cards & The Narnia Experience

 Bad pic today I’m afraid! The card was so  exhausted that it had to lay down rather than the usual standing posture! Nope, the picture was taken later in the day when the light is way too bright so I had to fake the piccy a little!!

It’s got a couple of chipboard pieces – the glittered heart and paper covered star. Chipboard is fab- takes rough treatment well- will hold up to the heat when embossing and adds dimension all round. These came from the On Board Mix and Match chipboard set which has 3 12×12 pages of lots of shapes; crowns, stars, hearts, circles, frames, arrows and more. You also get the backer sheet which is the same thick chipboard you can cut up to make mini books or cards. It’s £9.95 which is great value and is one of those ‘Cinderella’ items that lots of people overlook for the flashier items!!

This week is half term and we’ve been doing a variety of things. Yesterday we planned to go and visit the ‘Narnia Experience’ in St.Georges Hall in the centre of Liverpool. It finishes on the 19th Feb and is brilliant- google it and if you can- book the tickets online and go. Our kids loved it and are now sporting some Aslan T-shirts bought with their pocket money.
I say ‘all’ of kids, and that wasn’t entirely true. I didn’t realise that there would be ‘mild scary scenes’ and we went on the ‘Edmund’ route whilst some of the other Baker kids did the ‘Lucy’ trek round. You stopped off at different themed and decorated scenes and the actors helped retell the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe story from each childs’ perspective. Edmund ( of course) met the White witch. Complete with mood lightning, stone statues and eerie music we were entertained by the White Witch herself. To be fair, she wasn’t overly fierce or hammer it up- a pretty balanced portrayal but it was way too much for little Will. The whispers of ‘I don’t like this’ developed into ‘mummy I’m scared’ before progressing to full blown shaking, burying his head into my shoulder and even whimpering. At the whimpering point various members of our party turned round to see who was pertrified by the lady in the dress. Fortunately the Queen of Narnia had the good sense not to draw attention to the little boy who’d fallen completely under her spell or I think I’d have had to carry him out as a quivering wreck!
He calmed down eventually and despite loving is oversized red lion-clad T-shirt he will readily tell you that he didn’t like it! Oh well- I’ve warned my other friends with pint-sized children to take the ‘Lucy’ route and avoid the tears! Having said all of that , the sets were amazing, the actors were great and support it if you can! Well done to Jo Lawrence who was a fantastic Mrs Beaver for the evening ( watch out for your Bafta invite!).

Ok – lots to do ( apart from entertaining 5 kids!!)xx

Card project – cardstock-Crumb Cake, designer papers – yellow from Nursery Suite Specialty and purple scallops from the Sweet and Sour Speciality papers. Pink dotted paper from the Subtles Paper collection. White satin ribbon. White embossing powder. White signo gel pen, hole pricking tool. Stamp set- broadsheet Alphabet. Cosmo Glitter. Distress kit files ( for sanding the paper on the chipboard).

Valentine Treat Bag & Not Much Love!

Here’s a quick and fun project today with some adorable little Love Bugs!! Yes, they’re from Tesco (where else!!) and these are what my kids woke up to. They each had  little bag at the end of their beds!

Ok, I know chocolate isn’t great first thing in the morning, but hey, it’s Valentine’s Day! I too got chocolate and the most gorgeous box of cake cases!! (Steve knows just what I like!). The choccies are definately not the sort to waste on ‘I love any type of chocolate’ kids so I’m glad they got Love Bugs to munch on and could leave me to mine!! Having said all of that, those little bugs were pretty good (I’ll be hunting some more down as they’d be perfect for spring and summer cards!).

The outer case is from a stash of bags I’ve had in for ages! Love their milky opaque look. I did want a window in so you could see all the little ladybirds jostling for attention but the label punch would have meant that they’d have fallen out and damaged their wings. So I put in some of the smallest Stampin’Up! cellophane bags as an inner and they all seem quite cozy in there!

I’ve done some faux-stitching with a gel pen around the aperture and added a butterfly punch for the wings on the top bug. I created the red border using the punch (more details to follow on that one!), added some basic black ribbon, a sentiment from the Tiny Tags set and used Crumb Cake cardstock to make the bag topper. I happened to have some red staples (handy!!) and they finished it off!

Cute, quick and perfect for kids! (or slightly bigger kids too!).

Need to sign off quickly- there has been a distinct lack of love eminating from certain Baker kids this morning. Not sure they are feeling the love. The bugs did nae work and now I’m not feeling it much either. Ah well, maybe solitary confinement might help (and that would be just for me!). Maybe a quick headlong dive into the Hotel Chocolat box just might be the answer!!!

Have a ‘love‘ly day- whether you have a Valentine or not. Take a minute to think about all the people you love and the things you’re grateful for, and make Valentines Day an expression of all that is good and loveworthy in your life!

Sending you hugs! xx

Project deets: Supplies as mentioned above plus black Stazon ink!

Join my Stampin’Up! Team & Continued Blondeness!

It’s Friday!!!!! and it’s sunny! So here’s a bright flowery card. This all started off with the linen thread.. you may have noticed my penchant for it! I wanted to do something a bit different and made a circle with it. I punched out a circle and completely covered it in sticky strip. I started off in the middle and then just wound the linen thread around in a spiral. I found it sat better if I twisted it every so often. You don’t need to cut a length, just keep it attached to the reel and cut at the end. I did struggle a little, using so much!!!- but love the end result.

I’ve used the Swiss dots embossing folder because I wanted texture. In the US, all the demo’s sell the Big Shot and many unique embossing folders and dies. We’re all really hoping that this year we might get it in our Mini Catalogue (out in April) but we’ll have to wait and see!

I’ve done some pleating on an angle to create the flower and used an embossing tool in the middle of the leaves so the can be folded and partially raised.  You can see that better in the little picture.

I’ve just finished all the preparation for my class and team training. We’ll have a fun night and I’m always happy to have people join my team. We all get on amazingly well, we craft together, support each other and earn money whilst we’re doing it!! Sounds fun? Until the end of February you can get our fab Starter Kit for just £119 (it contains £230 worth of craftiness and you can also get another stamp set up to the value of £44.95 if you join before March). Not all my team do parties like me but they love the discounts, sneak peeks and perks. You don’t need to live near me as I can give long distance support too!! You never have to buy another thing if you don’t want so there’s no pressure but once people start, they stay because they love it!! Email me on kerenbaker@hotmail.com if you’re interested!

On a personal front, I’m continuing my dozy stint in life. I think the pinnacle of this was yesterday. I’m renown for losing my phone. Steve doesn’t understand it, but I guess if you had the amount of things flying around my brain that I do, you just might not be 100% efficient either! Anyhow, I’d lost it and Steve and the girls are pretty good at ringing it for me. It’s normally hiding under a pile of scrapbook paper or submerged under a group of coffee cups all awaiting the cleansing power of the dishwasher. Yesterday was a little more complex. We could hear it, but just couldn’t find it. Heather, my Mum and I kept hearing it, but just couldn’t pinpoint its location. Every time I got near to the noise, it appeared to move. After a somewhat baffling 5 minutes, Heather realised that it was actually in the pocket of my skirt (that I was wearing!)and the reason for the moving sound was because I was moving. Duh, and double Duh!! They all had a good laugh at my expense..but I reckon I deserved it! I used to be naturally blonde and now I’m reurning to my roots (sorry- that was a bad pun, and fully intended!!).

Okey dokey, off to rescue my phone from the clutches of my 3 year old who’s playing a Thomas the Tank Engine game on it!

xx

Card recipe: Cardstock- Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzazz and Real Red. White Signo gel pen. Black Stazon ink. Greeenhouse Gala Designer paper. Linen thread (lots of..boohoo!), Designer button, circle punch and corner rounder punch. Marina mist ribbon and Basic Pearls . Sentiment from Tiny Tags stamp set.

Teeny Card & Blog Candy Winner!

I should say Good Afternoon! But I’ve been getting everything wrong. I came up to a friend late this afternoon and said ‘Good morning’- she giggled and I felt really stupid! I also nearly made a big mistake- which is linked with this card. I was preparing to take an evening at the Stamping club I go to and this little card was for one of the examples of the type of thing we were going to make. I was half an hour off going and thought I’d just double check that I had the right time. I did. Unfortunately I would have been 2 weeks too early. Duh!! Is this what senior moments are like? Am I destined to live like this for the rest of my days (he he he!!)

This is a really tiny card (only about 10cm x 3.5cm) but I love the ruffled and ribbony textures. The paper is adorable and if you look carefully you’ll spot the ‘Bliss’ stamp which is part of the Bliss Sale-a-bration set. Add a few swirly pearls, a flower brad, a handmade flower and a little stamped butterfly and that’s it. I also cut out an image on one of the other designer papers in the Love Letters set. It’s really useful making tiny cards so that the smaller stamps you might have in your stash can take centre stage rather than looking too diminutive on your cards.

It’s also time to announce the winner of my blog candy……..

and the winner, who was picked out by one of my daughters is….

LYNNE FAHEY!!   Please get in touch Lynne and let me know where you want the bag sending too! On the topic of the bag- I will be recreating some similar- so please let me know if you’re interested. Prices and colours to follow!!

Thanks for all your lovely comments recently- both about my bag and cards or comments in general! It is so great reading them- I do appreciate it!

Well I need to go and find homes for some cakes. My hubby is starting to complain that our kitchen looks like ‘perma-cake’ (whatever that is) and is akin to an industrial bakery. He thinks I should get a prize for the 100,000th cake to come out of our oven (which is sadly probably not as far away as it should be!) If you’re down my way- please call in and relieve me of some of them (coffee or lemon drizzle)- I’ll only eat them and that is NOT good! Is there a known condition that causes the sufferer to have a compulsion to make cake?

Till later! xx

Card recipe: Base- Crumb cake, Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Ribbon- Real Red and Marina Mist. Ink- Stazon black and Early Espresso, Basic Pearls, Flower brad, Papers- yellow (butterfly) from Greenhouse Gala and houndstooth and flourish from Love Letters.

 

Bliss ‘Believe’ card & Nursery

Happy Saturday! I’m still lounging around at 10:20! Shocking! Had a late one last night- an absolutely fab bunch of girls came round for an evening of crafting using the Sale-a-bration sets. This is one of the cards that we made and we did ‘rock and roll’ stamping, watercolouring and generally made a mess! This is only a teeny card but fairly quick to do using blender pens and two inks.

I’ll show you the other card next post. I’ll be back hopefully on Monday to announce the winner of the blog candy.  Next Friday I’m doing some training for my team and then straight on to my craft class. We’re doing some projects using chipboard and there are still places if you fancy coming. There’s going to be a bit of daubing, sanding, covering and stamping. We’ll make some really pretty projects and everything is included for £13 and we have a good laugh! Email me to book your place.

I’m shouting instructions to one of my kids whilst I’m typing as she wants to bake cupcakes AND cover them in chocolate ganache! (Not wanting to be outdone by her older sister!) Sound familiar? I’m trying to stay out of the kitchen because it was relatively clean and now I dread to look.

I went to visit a nursery this week with my littliest. It always makes me sad when I do this- once they go to school you lose a little bit of them! He was pensive and a little reluctant but then wanted to stay and play (which we couldn’t do because we were only visiting!). I asked him after what he thought about it. His response? ‘Horrible and brilliant!’ Hmm.. not sure what to make of that response! His answer later on just regressed to ‘horrible’, so we’ll have to see how that goes. The nursery looked like a lot of fun and I’m sure he’ll love it once he goes.

I need to go and inspect the ganache- we’ve got to take 40 cakes to a baptism we’re going to later. I think actually I might take the card we did last night for one of the girls getting baptised- it seems very appropriate!!

Card recipe;

Cardstock- Very vanilla, Marina mist, Pear Pizzazz. Pearls. Marina mist ribbon, Ink- marina mist and Pear Pizzazz. Circle punch, corner rounder  and spiral punch. Bliss SAB set and ‘Just Believe’ set (sentiment).

 

Valentine Giftcard Holder

Hello there! I am doing another quickie post. I’ve another one off sick- nothing much, but enough to get sent home from school. This is a work in progress but finished enough to show you now. I will be adding a tiny tag, some Bakers twine and a teensy pearl. With Valentine’s Day looming and the ever present need to get something- sometimes it’s just easier to send a heartfelt note or a gift card!! (what would you prefer?!!!). This is a giftcard holder similar to one I’ve made before but made out of a window sheet (acetate). The stamping is done in Black and white Stazon ink and using the Love Letter papers. It’s a bit more masculine and will save as a standby in case I can’t find anything more suitable for Steve. It was all made and stamped in less than 10 minutes. I know it looks wonky, but its just the side not secured by the ribbon rising up a bit!

Have to rush off to the shops later. One of my biglies is doing cake decorating this week in Food Tech (they baked them and froze them last week). Aside from the discussion of the dubious merits of freezing fresh cakes, her plans for pimping her cakes are extravagant to say the least. The amount of items she’s taking to dress up the cakes is astonishing. Ok, I may have led her a little with the idea for putting ganache on one set, but the stars, nozzles, icing pens, glitter, fondant shapes etc etc are entirely hers. They’ve been told they’ll get more points for exciting decorations! Lets hope she scores well- these things matter don’t they! I’m just glad I have all that paraphenalia in- imagine the cost if I hadn’t have had!!

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the cards we’re doing tomorrow night at my Sale-a-bration night. It’s not too late to come…

Better dash- Don’t forget to scroll back and leave a comment on my bag post- it’s up for grabs but the last date for entries is tomorrow  the 5th!!

Giftcard holder supplies; Window sheet, Love letter designer series paper. white and black Stazon. Real Red satin ribbon, Artistic Etchings stamp set.

Quick and Simple Valentine

 I don’t have much time today so it’s a very quick post. With being time poor, the card needed to be quick too. Once I’d made the glittered part, it took only 5 minutes to create. This would be easily duplicated and the punched bit is fun to make. I made the glitter label punch with red cardstock so if any glitter wasn’t evenly distributed, it would be less obvious. Just put strips of slightly overlapping doublesided tape over a piece of card larger than the punched shape you want to cover. Punch it out, remove the top of the tape and douse in glitter. My carpet is still a little sparkly even once hoovered. That either says I’m rubbish at hoovering or my hoover is losing its ability…probably both!

I’ve used the tiny tags set which I use all the time- the little heart is from there too. Frustratingly I have mislaid both my heart punches (large and small)- I was hoping to use them, so if I’ve lent them out, or you’ve seen them wandering around Liverpool, please let me know- I’m missing them!!

Well, it’s nearly time for school pick up. This is my quick break- I’ve been cleaning up all day. The challenge was to clean up the ground floor today and attack the upper floor tomorrow. Hmm, it’ll either be a late one today or will reach into Thursday and Friday.

Just a reminder that there is still room for a few more if you fancy a FREE evening crafting this Friday at 8pm at my house. We’re using the Sale-a-bration sets to do the make and take. Bring a friend, you’d be really welcome!!

See you soon xx

Card recipe- Cardstock; Crumb cake, Very Vanilla, Real Red and Marina Mist. Cosmo Glitter (red), Marina Mist ribbon. Marina Mist ink and Stazon black and white ink. Tiny Tags stamp set. Curly Label extra large punch. White Signo gel pen.