Dad's Birthday Gift

Another pic from my archive!  This time it is a picture of the gift box I decorated for my father's birthday. 

Now my dad is not the easiest person to get a gift for, he is a bargain hunter like you wouldn't believe and doesn't like to see money wasted.  This means that while he loves reading, he doesn't like it when I buy him a book as he is happier hunting 2nd hand book shops or garage sales to find one!  In many ways I wish I was more like him in this aspect (we are similar in so many others).  So what's in the box?  A selection of spice mixes for some of his favourite curries!  They looked a bit boring on their own so to make it extra special I decorated one of the lovely large boxes from the Holiday Catalogue and popped them inside. These boxes are just great for gifts as you can decorate them any way you like.  This one of course has a more masculine feel.

The best part was that mum was visiting and could take this home with her.  Because the box stores flat she packed the box and contents separately and just slipped on the ribbon belly band when she got home - so no damage to the package!   

Happy Stamping

Thank You Tags

Don't you just love it when you have a creative streak, and the time to revel in it? That was me this weekend, sure the housework might be quite up to speed, but hey, it will just need doing again anyway! This time I am joining in with the Friday Mashup, an old favourite of mine.  This week the challenge was to use tags, and/or colour combo: Crisp Cantaloupe, Primrose Petal, Bermuda Bay and Soft Sky.

As usual I like to do the mash up and I am pretty happy with the outcome.  I used some of my Chalk Talk Framelits and the very cute daisy from Best Of Flowers.  I think the sentiment from Petite Pairs works really well with the double tags.

Happy Stamping

Chalk Talk Challenge

 The Sketch Frenzy Friday challenge took my eye today.  It is nice and simple and let me play with a new stamp set and a new technique (for me).

I took a couple of liberties with the sketch, but the large label 'needed' the pretty Coastal Cabana ribbon to hang off!  I just love Chalk Talk and am looking forward to playing with it more in future cards. Here I have stamped in Strawberry Slush and again in Coastal Cabana cutting out the label by hand.  The background is the new technique I was trying (my first attempt).  To make this background I inked up my Honeycombe Embossing Folder and putting a piece of Whisper White card stock inside and then just running over it with my hand to transfer the ink onto the cardstock.  I had imagined that the centre of each honeycombe would have coloured as well but it remained clean!

Happy Stamping

In-Colour Thank You

ESAD, the online group that organised the recent Blog Hop I was part of has set a monthly card challenge.  Unfortunately it is a closed Facebook group for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators and I can't link up the other creations but wanted to share mine.

This card uses three of our beautiful new In-Colours, new Label Love stamp set and matching punch as well as the very cute Chalk Talk Framelits.  I trimmed down the framelit tag to make it more square by running it through the Big Shot twice.  Sentiment from Itty Bitty Banners, and the flower is made with the wonderful Simply Pressed Clay, coloured by pushing it into the Coastal Cabana stamp pad - you can also colour the clay before you put it in the mold, or use an aqua painter to paint the dried flower (I had misplaced mine on my somewhat messy desk lol).

Happy Stamping