Not quite keeping to my New Years Resolutions

Oh dear....not sure how much of this I should write as I know my husband reads and shares these posts...now.

'Gulps'... my resolution not to spend any money on crafty items has gone since I have been going to the Stampin' Up classes (well to be honest it had gone by the end of January).  I've spent roughly £40 on new stamps and bits and pieces and I have only been to two classes. One of the new stamp sets I have purchased is called 'Flamingo Lingo'. It's a really fun set featuring flamingos, I will show you some card examples with my next blog as I haven't had a chance to play with them yet.

I have also purchased the Midnight Blush capsule collection from Papermania (via Create and Craft), from which I made the following 'Thank you' card and box for a colleague.  I stamped and embossed a free flower stamp set from a magazine onto a off-cut from an A3 piece of centura pearl card-stock. I then layered with a strip of paper and lace from the capsule collection.  I covered a tag with contrasting paper and stamped a sentiment on and attached it with a 'big bloom' paper flower.  I made a basic box for the card to fit in, and layered paper from the collection onto plain black card before decorating the box with the layers.  I stamped a large greeting onto black card and embossed with silver powder.  I die-cut several flowers and attached around the greeting, finishing with a gem in the centre of each flower. I thought they both looked very sophisticated.

I was very busy in April as it is the busiest month for birthdays - Dad's, my brother's and my niece's all within 2 weeks.


For Dad's I used a Stamps Away mask (hummingbird) and Phill Martin's texture paste (denim blue) from Creative Expressions.  It worked quite well, although I do need to practice more in ensuring the paste doesn't bleed under the mask.

I also made a pop up box card from the Grandchildren using a Hunkydory at the Seaside kit.

For my niece I used a Santoro Gorjuss card making kit for her card and used the same kit to decorate a notebook and bookmark for her.

There have been other expenditures which I decided had come for Valentine's Day and Mothers' Day...after I had bought them!

Oh well, it should give me an incentive to try and sell my cards at a Craft Fair, although I never seem to have time to build up enough stock to do this.  I must do so as I am just getting swamped with crafting goodies.  My latest purchases I have justified by saying they are for my daughters 4th birthday preparations this month.  They include a W R Memorykeepers pinwheel board and accessories and a laminator and pockets.