Victorian Border Punch

Good morning!We've been having fantastic weather here in Northern Ireland for most of the last week - real exam weather!!

On Saturday I learnt a lesson I really should have learnt years ago....never wear a necklace while sunbathing!!

We went to the beach at Portrush on the North coast with about 80 others (lots of kids) on a Sunday School trip.I never usually lie in the sun , in fact I never usually sit still for very long, but, as we say in these parts, the "craic" was good and I just lay down and enjoyed the chat while the kids played on the sand. A few hours later I got up with burnt neck and shoulders and a lovely white "necklace"!! And, oh yes....I did plaster on the suncream.

I was having a little play with the new Victorian Border punch  by Tonic Studios a couple of weeks ago and came up with some different things to do with it. This is the first one and I've made a card and little matching bag to show it off. The image is "Two Roses" - one of my digi images from A Passion for Stamps

I've chosen bold black stripes with contrasting Antique pink. The little flowers on the strip were made using Tonic Studios Petal Pairs and Petal Pairs Petites

Here's how I made the little strip.
(THIS WORKS WITH SOME OF THE OTHER PUNCHES IN THE RANGE TOO.THE STRIP WIDTH NEEDS TO BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT - I'LL BE SHOWING SOME MORE IN A DAY OR TWO)

1. Cut a strip of black card 3cm wide and as long as you need for your card.

2. Punch along one side with the Tonic Studios Victorian Border punch

3. Turn the strip over and line up as shown above. I've made a little mark directly above the dashed line on the punch so you can see it above the card.

4. Now line the punch up as normal and carry on punching along the card to the end.

5. The finished strip.

Challenges
Alphabet Challenge...H = hand made flowers

Bluebells

I've made an awful lot of cards lately which I haven't been able to blog for one reason or another so I thought it was time I made a card "just because"...

My back garden is full of Bluebells at the moment and I decided that's what I'd use for this card. I just love the way they grow in drifts and multiply each year. We had a gorgeous little rabbit for years (he died a couple of years ago) and he slept in the summer house at night but had the full scope of the garden during  the day ...so you can imagine how many plants disappeared. He loved to chew off the juicy new shoots of lots of my favourite plants and I lost lots of them that way. Now when I see them springing up undisturbed I actually miss him...!

Back to the card - the Bluebells are a digi image from A Passion for Stamps and, as usual, I've coloured them with Promarkers. I'm still showcasing the gorgeous new border punches from Tonic Studios and this time I've used Doily Border. I added a little strip of white behind it to emphasize it.

The little flowers at the corners were made with Pansies Accent punch  and the Accent Corner Wings, and I've added a little mini Butterfly at the top.

Hyacinth

Good morning! What weather!! After a week of fairly constant rain, the sun is shining so I was able to get a photo of my card. On Monday our son ran 7 miles of the Belfast Marathon in the freezing cold and heavy rain and we got cold and wet just watching - that will teach me to leave the house in a hurry without a coat!

I thought a pretty floral card was the best thing to brighten things up...so here it is.

The image is Hyacinth from A Passion for Stamps and is coloured with Promarkers. I wanted to show off my new Tonic Studios Floral Border 2 punch so I kept the punched border white for effect.This one is a real dream to use as it lines up in a second and punches with no effort at all!

The papers are First Edition Sweet Owl and Papermania Capsule Collection...gorgeous!!

Medals and Monarchs

Good morning. Thanks to ALL who took part in the Sir Stampalot birthday challenge and blog hop during April. I can tell you it took some time to look at all the cards and comment on as many as I could - but it took even longer to pick the winner. Congratulations to everyone who won something !

This month's Challenge theme at Sir Stampalot is Medals and Monarchs

and this is the prize....

My card is quite unusual for me as it doesn't have a stamped or digi image but I quite liked this combination of pieces and didn't think I should add anything else.

The paper is Portobello Road  and I hand cut some bunting.

The beautiful scalloped border on the red checked paper was made with the NEW Tonic Studios 

Scalloped Arc Border punch - one of the new additions to the fantastic Simplicity Geared border punch range.

Sir Stampalot winners

Good evening. The winners of the Birthday Bash at Sir Stampalot have been announced on the challenge blog. Well done to you all!!

The winner of the prize on my blog is Alison! Congratulations!

Hope you enjoy your prize! Just send Brenda an email (her address is on the Challenge Blog, here, and she'll post it off to you.

See you soon,

Ruth :)