Coach House Crafting on a budget

I'm finallymanaging to get some cards made again - yay!
This one is one that I made for my sisters 40th birthday.

The style of card I like has changed since I started making them many moons ago. The problem I have is that I don't have the fancy fandangled equipment that is showcased on the likes of 'create & craft' TV, I just feel that the prices are ridiculous and soon obsolete anyways.
My mum sent me her Cricut machine when she upgraded but it must have got damaged on the way here and now the cutter won't go up and down properly. The machine isn't old at all but Cricut have informed me it can't be fixed which I find ridiculous seeing as the carriage is a part all of it's own and removeable from the rest of the machine :(
Anyway the lack of cutting machines means I depend on the old Fiskars scissors for any cutting so I have to get quite creative to achieve some of the looks I like.

The stamp I used is by LOTV and I coloured it in using Promarkers on Rymans cardstock.
I used my sewing machine for the effect on the backing paper - love this effect!
The flowers are some random ones I bought on EBay.
The pins I made myself using ordinary sewing pins with coloured heads and then just glued on a jewellery finding to it. The best glue for this I find is 'Fixsal' glue - bonds in seconds once the air is expelled, so you have time to move it about before setting it.
The stamp base is a freebie I found online and then I added a top piece to it - all cut out by hand - and added the words i wanted in Photoshop before printing it out onto cardstock. Then I blinged the stamp up using diamantes & 'Fixsall' glue.

Enjoy!