Inspiration From A Wallpaper Pattern

Inspiration is all around us, maybe even something that we have passed by hundreds of times but never taken the time to see.

I was at my Grandmothers the other evening and my husband called on my mobile. He works away from home and we usually only have the one opportunity in the day to speak. I had to take the call in the hallway, on account of the TV volume being dialled up to 99 (thank goodness it doesn't go any higher, unlike the central heating which seems hotter every time I visit. I think it might make a reptile sweat).

My Grandmother has probably had the same decor in her hallway since I was a teenager, which is quite some time, but I hadn't really given it any attention before. 

While standing in the hallway on the phone I took a good look and liked what I saw enough to snap a quick picture.

As I was looking at it an idea instantly jumped into my head and I knew I had to snap this picture or it would be gone by the time I got home.

I have done this before; seen something that brought an idea to my head so I took a picture, but this is the first time that I've actually done anything about it. All of the other inspiring images are either still on my phone or filed away on the computer somewhere.

While I was looking at the picture I started to make a few quick little sketches with some notes on.

Ignoring how cluttered my workspace is, you can see these are just rough sketches where I've written down all of the ideas as they were coming to me (there were more notes on it by the time I was done but you get the idea).

From my sketches and the original photograph I have now produced six backgrounds!! Still work to be done embellishing and adding sentiments but I think this little snapshot has yielded a few nice ideas.

I'm still working on the completed cards so come back soon.

You can view the completed cards

Wallpaper Inspiration Continued

Triple Heart Easel Card

This lovely easel card has three hearts stacked on top of one another for a lovely dimensional card which will fold flat and fit into a standard envelope.

The colours are Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Basic Grey and Crumb Cake.

The stamps used are from the Hearts A Flutter set and the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

The framelit heart dies were used to form the card base and the co-ordinating Hearts A Flutter framelit's were also used.

Hope you enjoy!



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Handbag Gift Bag Tutorial

Gift Bag Tutorial Video

I have had a few requests for a tutorial for the Handbag gift Bags.

I have been very lucky recently to get my own dedicated crafting room, rather than commandeering the dining room. The new set up now makes it much easier for me to make videos, Yay!

So I have a video tutorial on how to make these lovely gift bags.

They're very easy to do and lots of fun. Hope you enjoy making your own.

Lovely As A Tree Water Reflection In Spring

Brayered Scene of Trees Reflected In the Water

Supplies Needed:

• Lovely As A Tree Stamp Set, item# 128655
• Brayer, item# 102395
• Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder, item# 109130
• Chocolate Chip Stampin' Pad, item# 126979
• Marina Mist Stampin' Pad, item# 126962
• Old Olive Stampin' Pad, item# 126953
• Stampin' Sponges, item# 101610
• Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers, item# 131261
• Brights Stampin' Write Markers, item# 131259
• Subtles Stampin' Write Markers, item# 131263
• Blender Pens, item# 102845
• Whisper White Card trimmed to 143mm*100mm, item# 106549

The stampin' Write Markers can be bought in the full colour family (8 or 10 markers per pack depending upon family), you can buy the full set Many Marvellous Markers (131264) or certain colours are available individually. If you are getting them individually then you could use Real Red (item# 100052), Early Espresso (item# 119680) and Blushing Bride (item# 131265) as an alternative to the colours stated above.

Equipment Needed:

• Heat Tool , item# 129054
• Masks made from copy paper

To make the masks, stamp the image on a sheet of copy paper and cut along the line of the landscape.

You can watch me making this card on my You-Tube video.

The supplies for this project can be purchased online, Maria Kitching online store.

Feeling Very Stupid

I am having a blond day today.

I'm still not very good at this blogging carry on and I was messing around in my account this afternoon and I have somehow managed to

DELETE ALL OF MY COMMENTS FROM ALL OF MY POSTS BY ACCIDENT

I thought I was deleting the messages I had telling me I had a comment on my post.

Now I feel very silly, I had lots of great comments from lovely people and now I have none.

Let this be a lesson not to mess around with stuff when you have no idea what you're doing.

Exploding box

Exploding box keepsake

This cute little box "explodes" when you remove the lid.

Inside I've put a little pair of paper booties, which I made using a free printable template. Which you can find here Booties template.

They were pretty easy to put together and just a little bit fiddly. I used my cricut to cut the shapes and the letters (decided to use that as it's not seen daylight for almost a year and I was a bit short on time) otherwise a nice alphabet stamp would be lovely and a die cut shape. I used up some of my dsp's which have now been discontinued but I have some left so I want to use them.

A nice pool Party bow using the new die finished off the top nicely and the duck on the front is from the easy events set (sadly not a current catalogue item).

There are a lot of possibilities with this and it's a versatile deign which is easily modified to use what you have.

Stampin' Up! supplies can be bought from my on line store Maria Kitching stampin' Up! store

Supplies used:

Gift Bow Bigz L Die, 129977, £28.95

Decorative Label Punch, 120907, £15.50Pool Party A4 Card Stock, 124391, £6.25 Crumb Cake 12 X 12 Smooth Card Stock, 124274, £5.50Labels Collection Framelits Dies, 125598, £22.95Ovals Collection Framelits Dies, 129381, £22.95 Thank you for stopping by!!

Retiring Products

Visit My Online Store, hurry while supplies last!!

Christmas Cards, so easy a four year old could do them!!

These cards were super simple to do and my little boy just LOVES to craft!!

The background is stamped in silver with the gorgeous grunge set.

A piece of red tape was used to make the glittered line (I positioned the tape for him, this stuff is so sticky there's no room for error, when it's down it's down).

Take the plastic off the tape and cover with glitter use a scrap of paper to rub the glitter and make sure it sticks.

A few scrap pieces of silver paper (I cut these for him and he stuck them down).

Paper flower decoration

My poor Nan is in hospital and my little boy and I made this to cheer her up a bit.

The flowers are made with the blossom punch and the bottle is stuffed with some brown packing paper (which we all have loads of) shredded.

I'm not very good at flower arranging so I was very pleased with how this turned out.