Undecided title lol

I couldnt decide on the title for todays post.. it was a split decision between I'm a Donut and Possibly the Best Stamp Set Ever. I'll let you decide which it should have been lol.

Donut, because I've done something so stupid I really can't believe it.... I've been hankering after the bauble punch from SU since I saw it in the US catty last year. September 1st arrives and we get a sneak peak at the new catty and woohoo we've got the punch... fast forward 4 weeks and I can finally order it.. I've got my need list all tidily arranged on a spread sheet so I don't forget anything. Woohoo the very nice man from UPS arrived early this morning with a ginormous box. I was very restrained... and rammed my tea & toast down my throat, washed the raspberry jam from my fingers before hacking at the box to get in it as quick as humanly poss. Squeals of delight as I grab my new goodies then it dawned on me.. delightful decoration stamp set yes, xmas wheel yes, jolly holiday papers yes, old olive ribbon yes, where's the bauble punch..Yep I forgot to copy & paste the code number for the punch. Gutted isnt the word to describe how I felt for all of the 10 minutes it took to log in and order it (and a few other things lol).



Possibly the Best Stamp Set Ever?

This is what really lifted the disappointment.. Just Believe. I'll be honest when I first saw the catty I was so busy looking at other things this one was overlooked until I happened to be looking in the SCS galleries.. WOW. I needed this set and I needed it straight away. Not often I use the same set 5 times in a single afternoon but I couldnt help myself. I can see me playing with it some more tomorrow.




This is the first card I made and was inspired by the Saturday Challenge Blogs theme for the week, distressing. Sorry about the photo, it doesnt sag in the middle.. I took the photo at a dodgy angle and used the perspective tool in PSP to right it.. not a good idea lol

Soft suede, crumb cake, & very vanilla cardstock, early espresso, crumb cake and soft suede ink.

En Francais script background, perfect punches sentiment, Just Believe.

Very vanilla taffeta ribbon and 3 new punches, scallop trim border, scallop trim corner and curly label extra large.


I fell in love with soft suede & crumb cake a long time ago when they were US colours. Teamed here again with early espresso & very vanilla again.

The central image is from the same set and was decoupaged. The larger background image was using a 2nd impression with crumb cake.





Again the same 3 colours but I used some of the champagne glitter paint and dauber to sponge some glitz over the vase.

Not sure about the layout (sketch from stamping411). It was going to be recycled into a different card but hubby loved it so it had a reprieve lol.

Vase made with the new oval extra large punch.





This is a stamp that cries out for multicolour stamping. Markers are something that I've tended to overlook a lot lately thanks to copics but that's about to change, well when I've saved enough pennies for the SU markers in the new colours.

Just because there's been a colour renovation I still like and will use the older colours. This is using 3 of the retired greens and real red markers. Coloured on to the stamp, huffed on then stamped on to very vanilla. If you look at the leaves carefully you'll see where the shades have merged together. Lovely technique and only possible with dye based pens. Sentiment from the same set, Just Believe but the top layer was punched with the curly label extra large. The bottom layer was cut by hand very carefully lol. Old Olive cardstock.




Odd colour combo time, old olive, melon mambo and elegant eggplant. Everything screams at me that it shouldnt work but somehow I think it does, or have I just got dodgy taste lol. I do think it might have been better if I'd used old olive as a border and the melon mambo as the base, maybe next time.

Not a card, this is a rather large corner bookmark. The old olive base was stamper with versamark. The main image was using daubers to dab the three inks in place. It's a similar technique to using the pens but if you look at how the eggplant & melon have merged it's a much softer look. I'm so chuffed with how they look in real life I'll be daubing a lot more eggplant & melon. Scallop trim edge & border punches also used.

CAS bauble

I love clean & simple and I'm really pleased with how this one came out.

Whisper white masked with the waste from a nestie ornament and strips of torn paper. Baja Breeze sponged over for a background. I did try with some cutndry to speed things up but wont show you the dogs dinner it made. Daubers are best for this as you need to control the ink.

Lovely as a tree stamped with Pacific Point before being overstamped with versamark heat embossed with heat & stick powder then dusted liberally with dazzling diamonds. Sentiment from Contempo Christmas and stamped in pacific point. All matted on to baja breeze cs.

Mixed bag

Bit of a mixed bag from me today, you've got no idea how good it is being able to play with inks again!


This one is simulating a crimper technique on SCS. I used a hougie board instead of a crimper.. next order that goes in is going to have the new A4 crimper!! All that lining up and scoring was a bit like hard work :o(

Contempo Christmas was used for the tree and sentiment (my idea of a perfect sentiment stamp, love the design)

Whisper white, garden green and real red cs/inks with just a pinch of dazzling diamonds on the star. Pic doesnt show it but it really sparkles in real life. For me real red is the ultimate in true xmassy reds and I normally use loads of it at this time of year.



Christmas colours again but this time I've used old olive, cherry cobbler and very vanilla. Cherry cobbler is a blood red in real life and has a very rich tone to it. Perfect with many of the SU greens and vanilla.

I used a couple of the stamps from Artistic Etchings and the box was cut with scal & my cricut. Very easy to make if you have a circle template. There is a step by step at scs which uses an envie template.




This has been on my to finish list for a wee while. It's a bingo board that I started at Yeovil playday with some of my crafting buddies.

There is a pic of me somewhere in the dc gallery spraying the board with gold paint, trouble was I had my hand in the cast, was spraying outside Sandras kitchen shop and it was blowing a gale lol.

One of my all time favourite stamp sets, pocket silhouettes. Rich razzleberry, soft suede, pumpkin pie card & inks. Boho blossom, scallop border (pencil holder) and bird punch. Rich razzleberry grosgrain ribbon.

A few cheap gems, ikea pencil that happened to be in my pocket and a small post it note pad.

Middlestep variation

This is a variation on the sidestep/middlestep card.

I cheated and made a template for scal & my cricut lol.

Both cards are using one of the new stamp sets, Contempo Christmas as the main focal point. The tree card is a tiny 3" sqr, the bauble 5"sqr.



I've also used Joy of Season Flourish, String from Tree Trimmings, Old olive, cherry cobbler ink & cs. Very vanilla cs, baroque border & sparking wheels, versamark, gold ep, very vanilla taffeta ribbon, dazzling diamonds glitter

There is a complimentary bauble punch which fits the stamp but we werent allowed to preorder it :o( Hopefully it's winging it's way to me now ;o)

I'm back

Sorry I've been so deadly silent lately. An accident on a quad bike left me with a broken scaphoid bone in my right hand... Yes, I'm right handed, very much so.. whisking an egg was hilarious and brushing my teeth left handed was, odd! More than 8 weeks with my hand in a cast was miserable and not only was typing a major problem but stamping was a big nono. I did try left handed but I wasnt very good.

Anyways my cast is now off and just in time for the new catty I can stamp again, yay.

My big problem now is that I have more than a few new ink pads & card add that to a few of the new clear mounted sets (woohoo, yes most of the SU sets now come unmounted and ready to use with acrylic blocks) and I have a dilemna what do I play with first lol.


This is one I managed to stamp left handed. Thankfully the distressed look didnt need to be stamped as well as I normally like.

This one is a mix of the old & new.

Bella toile background stamped with versamark & clear ep on to whisper white before being tinted with baja breeze (this ink is better than lush) and pear pizazz (one of the 5 new in colours).

En francais script background stamped with kraft, sorry the new name is crumb cake, then the eiffel tower and round pattern from Artistic Etchings was stamped with early espresso & baja breeze.

White taffeta ribbon tinted with pear pizazz ink. The sentiment is from one of the new sets, perfect punches and fits beautifully with the scalloped oval punch. Sadly we werent allowed to order the new large oval punch until yesterday but now I have and once it's arrived I inted to back the sentiment with some more soft suede cardstock to match the card base.

Card set & box

Earlier in the week I had some of my internet friends here for another playday. The project was a boxed set of cards. Having just taken delivery of some of the new yummy colours I just had to have a play.



I need to thank Jenny Moors from Stamping Moments for the inspiration as I fell in love with the set she made. The 2nd card in is using the same card but it's catching the light oddly.



The snowflakes are from the Serene Snowflakes set in this years mini catty. I do hope they appear in the main catty when it's released in Oct as these are my idea of the perfect snowflake stamps.




All of the cards are using nowt but soft suede (woohoo, I've been after this colour since it was launched in the US last year) with a pearlescent cream card stock that I've had for yonks, soft suede ink (2nd impression for backgrounds) and either kraft or very vanilla taffeta ribbon. I've also used the scallop border punch and made dipdots with the champagne shimmer paint. The light isnt catching them very well as in real life they're a lovely soft gold colour but the sparkle is amazing. I wish this had been out when I was deeply into parchment craft as it knocks spots off of the very expensive dipping ink I used to buy.
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This one isnt making it into the box set as it doesnt quite match with the others but I had fun making the dip dots using the mat pack as a placement guide. This time I used white craft ink and 3d'd the centre.





This is the box I started on Monday using rich razzleberry (the other colour I've been desperate for) with bashful blue. Not so sure that the colours work or it could be that I need to stamp the snowflake again but this time have less of the blue showing.

Hubbys birthday card

This whopper (8" square) is for hubbys birthday tomorrow using a layout from Sketch & Stash blog. I really must invest in a light box so I can take photos on an evening as the colours look a bit wishy washy here when they're quite butch in real life.

I've used my brayer with bashful blue, brocade blue, night of navy & pretty in pink to brayer the sky and water and garden green for the hills.

Lovely as a tree was reverse stamped into the water with the brayer and the stampamajig used to position the main tree. Sponged with various greens & choc chip watercoloured over the trunk. Sentiment from Circle of Friendship & punched with 2 of the SU circle punches.

Mounted on to night of navy and papers from Nouveau Chiq & Tea & Crumpets. I used my new martha stewart punch around the page set to add a decorative border.

Finally brocade blue grosgrain ribbon with a few gems.