Make It Simple Monday - Ornate Garden Suite

Hello and welcome back to another week of me hoping to inspire you with some ideas for your cards. Well, I'm sure many of you have made enough Christmas cards for this year so this is now December and we are all about the rest of the year. Cary and I have had a crazy week, we have had so many events this year online that we now have to send out our annual gifts and thank you's. In addition to preparing for the new catalogue which has arrived with us but will arrive with you by the beginning of the New Year. If you would like a catalogue from us, please drop us a line for your complementary copy. Don't forget too that if you live in the UK, and Europe (at the moment) you can shop with Stampin' Up! through us. Follow this link and it will take you to the 2 Big Girls Crafting Catalogues. No, you'll not see the new products there yet but it will be very soon. Please click HERE. The link will want you to open up a new window so that you don't loose your place on here. 

We will have first of all Thank you cards to write, then birthday, weddings, anniversaries, birth and of course sadly, loss of loved ones. I've gone into full thank you mode this week as the children and grandchildren are going to be asking for lots of thank you cards to send to friends and family this year as they'll obviously be unable to thank them face to face. What a year!! It has certainly has been a very unique one that hopefully will never be repeated. 

As I mentioned above in the title I am using the lovely Ornate Garden Suite this week for mainly thank you cards. More information on the suite, please click HERE 

My first card is of course a very simple one. I have stamped the images onto a white mat using the gorgeous bluey-green of Coastal Cabana ink and card base. I have actually made 3 different versions this week to show that with a few extras, you can change your card up very quickly and simply.

 

Here is the very simple card and using a few blends and some Frosted gems added it brightens the card immediately.

This next version I have stamped another flower and fussy cut it out and raised it using the foam shapes and the added gems.

As I said before, just by adding a few little touches I have managed to liven the card a little more. What will tomorrow bring I wonder?

 

Fun Fold Friday - Most Wonderful Time

Oh My Goodness! It's 1st October already and so near to Christmas! Isn't it strange how once summer time has gone the Christmas season suddenly looms upon us?  Well, it's certainly getting closer! I have continued on using the stamp set and papers from the Most Wonderful Time Medley. It was in last years seasonal catalogue and has returned again this year I am very pleased to say.

Today's fun fold is just that, yes, another 'simple' card. I know that I keep on saying simple but I promise you that is really is. I took a sheet of White A4 card and cut it, portrait at 14.85cm, or 5,7/8" by the full length of the card which in the UK is 29.7cm. I then scored it in half at 14.85cm then from that fold 4.5cm 3 times more. That will leave approximately 1.5cm

I added double sided paper 14.4cm by 4.2cm on the 3 main panels and a small strip to the last 1.5cm wide panel. The inside is a white mat of 14.4cm by 14.4cm which I 'stepped' across the Real Red ink pad to accentuate the edge of the paper. Some decorations and a message on the side to allow the card to stand and the card is complete.

Well, that's it from me for this week. I do hope I have managed to give you some ideas towards making your Christmas cards for this year. 

Please stay safe and keep well but most certainly, keep on crafting too!
Cary will be back next week with lots of lovely things to inspire you so please stop by. 

Thank you again, Gill xxx 😀😍😍

Fun Fold Friday

 Well, it's that time of the week again when I get to have even more fun by making a fun fold card. I have no idea why but I find making or even caseing a fun fold brings me great pleasure. 

This card today one is no exception. It is a standard Gatefold card but for the 1st time ever I used a plate to give me the shape at the top of the card! A die would also work but not through 3 layers of thick card. I also used the plate to shape the Copper Foiled card too. There are always ways to improvise and make things work to your best advantage. 

I covered the white card base using the lovely returning papers Brightly Gleaming. The gorgeous shades of blue and green mixed with a little vanilla and copper decorations in the set are perfect for Christmas and many other occasions too. Love it!

Anyway, my card is another very simple card to make as the card is literally folded into 3 equal parts and then the 2 outer edges are folded into the first fold on each side again giving you the gate fold effect. I stamped several of the little trees in Stazon black ink, then using the background stamp in the set and the inked baby wipes I made up for Tuesday's post and using a block, I transferred some of the ink to the front of the Christmas Trees then punched them out. As I said yesterday, I never throw or sell much of my old Stampin' Up! products away so I used the gorgeous Stars Border Punch and some of the Copper foiled paper to make decorations for the trees. I used some more messages from the Perfectly Plaid stamp set that I have used this week and were randomly added across the card and I'm done. 

More information on all of the products and the stamp set HERE

I don't think this card needs any bling as the copper gives a lovely shine to the whole card fortunately.

Thank you for joining me this week, I hope you've had as much fun as I have. Especially the getting inky fingers bit! Cary will be back on Monday with some more or her amazing creations so please join her and see what delights that she has in store for you. 

Take care, stay safe, Gill xxx :) 😀😀😀