Making cards with Stampin' Up! UK - Oh Happy Day!

It's pouring rain outside and I have been feeling terrible. My throat hurts, my body aches. I've filled myself full of cold and flu remedies in the hope that I'll feel better soon but I'm not holding up much hope it'll work. The bug has hit me and I'm afraid I won't last much longer without a nap. But out of the corner of my eye I spy something cheery, something that might just lift my spirits. Card-making has become a new hobby of mine and I was kindly set a card-making kit from Stampin' Up! UK.

About the kit

The Oh Happy Day card kit is sold with everything you need to make some gorgeous and cheerful cards for someone you love. From bright and colourful cards to sparkly embellishments and embossed sheets this kit is awesome.

Coordinating coloured sheets and pop-out embellishments this is a great kit for any novice, you're given everything you need to make the cards as well as good instructions to help you create the cards. Or you could simply ignore the instructions and create the cards you choose - it's completely up to you.

The Oh Happy Day card kit costs £31.50 and will provide hours of entertainment for you or your budding card-maker.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi

Making the cards

As I said, I've been feeling rubbish lately and whenever I thought about sitting to create some cards it made my head hurt. I didn't think I had it in me to sit for hours to make them. But instead of going to bed and ignoring the kit I made myself sit at my creation desk (cool name huh?) and make the cards.

I decided to follow the instructions, being a novice means I'm not quite sure which colours go together just yet or whether or not to put embellishments on so the instructions were the way to go.

I started out with what I thought was the simplest, a very small "miss you" card with an embellishment. Before sticking anything down or attempting to stamp the words I planned it all out. I didn't want things to go wrong.

I laid out each piece where I wanted it to go and took a photo.

Next I took my pencil and marked where I wanted the stamp to be then took away the embellishments and using my own ink pad stamped the words onto the card.

After allowing the ink to dry I stuck the heart card on and then the heart embellishment.

The instructions are very easy to follow and if you can't understand the instructions there are handy pictures too so you can just copy the picture.

Hiccups

If you're new to card-making you don't need to worry about having your own ink pad, one comes with the kit. However, on opening my kit I found that the ink pad had dried out so I used my own.

A lesson learned during the making of these cards was to let the ink dry. And by letting it dry I don't mean leave it for 10 minutes and then try to pick up the card as if everything was okay. If you do this will happen...

That's right, I stamped the words, added the embellishments, and then tried to pick up the card before I realised what I'd done. The ink wasn't dry and I ended up with it all over my hands and the card was ruined. Completely my own fault but lesson learned.

What I thought

Oh Happy Day indeed. Even though the weather was dreary and I was feeling anything but cheery this card making kit cheered me up. I spent the best part of 3 hours making cards, sticking, glueing, and stamping (leaving time for drying of course), and within a few minutes of making I was feeling better. I even smiled.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

Dalai Lama

I haven't made any cards for a while and making these made me remember why I enjoyed it so much. The finished cards are brilliant and would make any friend or loved one happy.

After enjoying making the cards I spent some time exploring the Stampin' Up! UK website. If you're a fan of card-making you'll enjoy looking through the website too. You can find die cutting machines, gorgeous stamps, and even brilliant punches for creating animals!

I'll be spending some money at Stampin' Up! UK very soon, especially if I can get this stamp set...