Three Minute Thursday with Hope and Strength

Good morning! Welcome to Three Minute Thursday! If you haven't come across my blog before, this is a weekly series where I post a card that takes just a few minutes to make.

Today's card is an A5 postcard-style notecard - you'd simply write your message on the back. It's a kind of card I find very useful.

I think the image is a moth, not a butterfly, but I could be wrong! Whatever it is, it's the most beautiful image. It comes from the wonderful Hope and Strength set that Stampin' Up have produced in aid of breast cancer research - the company is donating £1 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for every set sold. So many of our lives have been touched by this horrible disease so please do consider adding this beautiful set to your collection.

I've said many times that if you need to produce a card in a short space of time, the stamp-a-majig can be your best friend! Using it made it so easy to line those pretty moths up perfectly.

I just cannot get over the detail on this image! It will look fantastic embossed in gold on dark pink card stock... but that will have to wait for another day! I couldn't help making another version though - I needed (yes, needed!) to see what the design would look like on Crumb Cake card stock, with pinks and greens!

And it looks like this! The strip was inked with certainly Celery and the moths were stamped in Melon Mambo ink. This one took a little longer because I wanted to sponge the edges with Whisper White Craft ink, but was still a very quick card.

Here's how to make the blue card:

• Take an A4 sheet of Whisper White card stock and cut it into four.
• You're going to use two sheets of scrap paper as a mask to make your stripe so put four tiny blobs of Tombow onto the card stock to hold the mask. Leave to dry while you get your paper and open your ink.
• Arrange the sheets of paper onto the card front so that you have a 3cm strip showing. Sponge the strip with Baja Breeze ink. Remove the mask and rub away the residue of the glue with the Stamping Up adhesive remover. (TIP: This looks like an eraser and easily rubs away dried glue. It's useful to have one to use with masks but also for those little mistakes - well, you probably don't make them, but I certainly do! - and it's only £3.25.)
• Use your stamp-a-majig to stamp first the moth in the centre, then the other two. 
• Add a sentiment using the stamp-a-majig again.
• Finish with adhesive rhinestones or pearls.

Supplies
Stamps: Hope and Strength, Trendy Trees (sentiment)
Ink: Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Adhesive rhinestones or pearls

Edited to add: Some of you have been asking how much the Hope and Strength set is - sorry to assume that you're telepathic! It's £15.95 for the wood mount version and £12.95 for clear mount (that's an unmounted version that you use with your acrylic blocks) and you can order it from me by emailing me or phoning me on 01280 820593.

Well after that wintery day yesterday, we had not just a spring day today but a full-blown summer day! My husband and I went for a walk together at lunchtime and were too hot! It was wonderful! Later, when the children came home from school we gathered together a picnic and went off into the countryside with it. They do make me laugh. Their conversations are peppered with misunderstandings like when my son got territorial over his crisps. "Hey - are those my crisps?" he demanded of my daughter. "I don't know," she replied. "I haven't tried them yet!" (She'd heard the question as 'Hey - are those nice crisps?')

Thank you so much for dropping in today - and please don't forget to email me if I can help in any way. I'll have a bit of Easter inspiration here tomorrow so I'll hope to see you then.