Go spread some sunshine with a handmade card - nothing wishy-WASHI about cheering someone's day, is there?

Gosh, July? Already? Wow! Pinch punch, first of the month, no returns, white rabbits - as we used to say when I was a kid! Do you say that where you are in the World too, I wonder? I would love to know!

As it is the first of July today, I believe it is Canada Day, so, for all my Canadian family and friends and readers - happy Canada Day to you all. Hope you celebrate it well?

Today I have a bright and jolly birthday card for you that was quick and easy to make, using the gorgeous Cherry On Top Designer Washi Tape, some circle punches and not much else! Come  and take a look:

The card base is Watermelon Wonder, with a mat of Whisper White on top. I tore off a strip of each of the different washi tape designs and laid them in a criss-cross, random position on the white card layer. I then stamped the scalloped flower from the Crazy About You stamp set in Watermelon Wonder ink onto a scrap of Whisper White Cardstock and punched it out with the 1 3/4" (4.4mm) scallop circle punch, popped it up on dimensionals and stuck it onto the card.

I then punched out several tiny circles, from Cucumber Crush cardstock scraps, using the smallest eye pieces of the Owl Builder Punch, then a couple of the largest eye circles plus a 1/2" (1.3cm) circle punch circle in Bermuda Bay cardstock. Then, finally, I punched one Watermelon Wonder 3/4"(1.9cm) circle and randomly stuck them all onto the card with Tombow glue, so that they followed a vague triangle pattern, to make it easy on the eye and balance out. I wanted them to echo the multi-coloured, different-sized circles on the spotty washi tape.

The final touch was to stamp the greeting, in Bermuda Bay ink, onto another scrap of Whisper White cardstock, using my trusty, much-used and much-loved Stamp-a-ma-jig to align the words; then, punch it out with my 1 3/8" (3.5cm) circle punch and glue it on top of the scalloped flower. The sentiments come from the Crazy About You set - there are an abundance of words to choose from in that fabulously useful stamp set! I love it!

However, before I stuck down the mat to the card base and chose what greeting to use, I decided to have a play around, to see which combination I preferred. The following two photographs show what the card looks like with either a Bermuda Bay or Cucumber Crush base:

I think the choice of background colour makes a huge difference to the look of the card, don't you? Each one picks out different aspects of the embellishments on the card and puts a different emphasis on the card as well.

I also played around with the greetings too, as you can see in these rough "drawing board" photographs that I took at my crafting table:

You'll have to excuse the rather messy (and inky!) backdrop in these last two photographs, and I apologise for the less than perfect picture quality too - I hadn't intended on showing them to anyone when I took them -  but, I just wanted to show you how you can make cards for several different occasions using the exact same card design, but switching up the sentiment choice. I think they all work well, but I chose the birthday one in the end.

I think these would make a great gift,  if you made a set of several cards, with different greetings on each one and either made a box for them, or, popped them in one of the Stampin' Up! Tag A Bag Gift Bags, tied up with a pretty ribbon, with a personalised hand-stamped tag on it.

I am sure that any teacher would appreciate a set of these at the end of the school term, or, you could just send them to someone you know as a "happy mail" RAK (Random Act of Kindness) to cheer them on their way?

I love to get anything in the post that is not a bill or a pizza flyer - and proper old-fashioned snail mail is so few and far between these days, isn't it? When was the last time you received something through your letterbox that was neither a bill nor a piece of junk mail? And, more to the point, when was the last time you SENT a piece of anything handwritten or handmade in the post "just because"? Just think how much happier we could make the world, if everyone sent out something in the "snail mail" today? You never know how much you might brighten someone's day by sending them something pretty and unexpected in the post, it might just tip the balance if they are feeling down. So, what are you waiting for? Make something and send it out to someone you know TODAY. Go on, do it, today, now, and make a small but significant difference to someone's week... I think it might even brighten your own week, knowing that you have sent somebody else some sunshine too...

Until next time, happy crafting everyone. Go spread some sunshine today...

Lucy x 

P.S. Last minute edit: Stampin' Up! have added even more products to both this week's Weekly Deals  AND to the Clearance Rack! Here are this week's Weekly Deals - there are a bumper 11 items for you this week: 

My top picks from the clearance rack are the Texture Boutique Embossing Machine which is down to only £13.49 (half price!), the Mosaic Punch which is now only £5.59 (60% off!), the Jumbo Sticky Rounds, now only £1.79 and also the Kartenset hip, hip, hurra! - which although is only available in German, is a bargain at only £7.19, down from £17.95 - worth it for the ink spots, clear block and card blanks and die cuts alone, even if you don't use the stamps, I think! Bargain! Some whopping deals there - that will definitely add to this week's sunshine, don't you think?! Lucy x

Cherry On Top cookie pouch

Today I have a quick post for a quick-to-make cookie packet treat pouch using the fabulous new Cherry On Top Designer Series Paper (DSP) Stack.

The paper comes in several designs all in a really useful 6x6" (15.2x15.2cm) sheet size. There are a bumper 48 sheets in each stack - with four each of 12 double-sided designs in fabby, bright and cheery, Summery colours and gorgeous patterns. Stampin' Up! have had the simply genius idea of offering coordinating packs of matching A4 cardstock colours to go with each of the paper stacks and other packs of DSP in the new Annual Catalogue. The Cherry On Top Cardstock pack has 8 sheets each of Bermuda Bay, Cucumber Crush and Watermelon Wonder cardstock for a great price of £6.50. No more struggling to find enough sheets of matching cardstock when you are on a roll and making multiple projects with your DSP! Yey!

Here are the papers in action:

I chose the fun cup cake, ice creams and cherries sheet and the multi-coloured nibbled doughnuts designs to make these pouches which hold a cute two-pack of double-chocolate Oreo cookies which I bought from my local corner shop. I am sure that you could easily adapt the design and measurements to fit a treat of your choice though if you can't find these exact ones... 

I put a line of Fast Fuse glue along the bottom edge and along one side edge of the DSP and wrapped the paper around the snack pack, pressing down the seams gently, making sure that I kept the edges of the papers straight and also allowing enough room for the packs to slide in and out of the pouch easily. I used a small (3/4") circle punch to cut a half-moon thumb-grip hole out of the front of the pouch.

I punched two Decorative Label Punch shapes out - one in Crushed Cucumber and one in Watermelon Wonder - to make the pull tabs. I then stapled a narrow "faux-ribbon" to the top, made from strip of one of the other cute paper designs in the Cherry On Top DSP, and "flagged" on the ends using the same circle punch as the thumb-grip hole (to make a change from the usual fish-tail flags I would normally do!). I decorated the labels with punched out hearts which were left over from my recent Telford Swaps  and raised them up on half a dimensional each. (The heart stamp is from the Something To Say stamp set, punched out using the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.)  The top half of the label tabs were glued together with Tombow and then the lower halves were attached to the cookie packs using glue dots. 

In the photographs above and below you can see that I  scored a series of lines at the bottom of each treat pouch to make it look like the sealed ends of the cookie packaging. To do this I used my Simply Scored Scoring Tool and the smaller end of the Stylus to create four score lines at 1/8th of an inch intervals. You can also see how neatly the tab top fits inside the pouch under the thumb-grip hole. There is plenty of space left on the punched labels for any message you might like to write on them for the recipient of the cookie treat pouch. If these were to be a table gift at a party, then you could maybe attach another label on the front of the pouch with each guest's name and use them for place-settings too, perhaps?

There was just enough room to glue-dot an individually-wrapped peppermint teabag onto the cookie pack, below the label, so that I could slide the cookies and the attached teabag together into the pouch, meaning that the people I sent these to, could sit down with their feet up and have a soothing cuppa and a couple of biccies on me, whilst they flicked through their lovely brand new copy of the Stampin' Up! catalogue that I sent to them!

Not got a copy of the catalogue yet? Would you like me to send you a paper copy? Then contact me and I will be very happy to send you one if you don't already have your own demonstrator... The first five people to request a catalogue, will get one of my Cherry On Top "cookie and cuppa" treat pouches, plus, an In Color bookmark sampler with their catalogue too. 

(Thanks go to my fellow Pinkie, Katy, for the inspiration for the sampler.)

Until next time, happy crafting everyone!

Lucy x

Click on the above image for more information on how to get two FREE stamp sets in June!