Springtime Vintage birthday card

The gorgeous Springtime Vintage papers in the mini catalogue have proved to be incredibly popular. They don't look much in the catalogue but you only have to glimpse them in real life to fall in love with them. They conjure up visions of 1940s frocks worn with white gloves, rose red lipstick and rolled hair, bone china tea sets... I can almost hear Vera Lynn being cranked up on the gramophone!

Here's a card inspired by that era:

The pink ditsy print floral is one of the prettiest papers ever! I mounted it on embossed Early Espresso card stock to ground it. Have you noticed how often I've been using the Square Lattice embossing folder? It's become a real favourite of mine!

I made the flower with the fancy flower punch. I love the design of the tone-on-tone pink paper I used - there's a great mixture of stunning florals and more sober prints in the Springtime Vintage series. The flower centre was made with one of the three little punches in the Itty Bitty Shapes punches pack.

There's a trend for these ruffled ribbons at the moment. I'm not really a fan but it's good to try new things! If you like this ribbon treatment, it's very easy to do: Just fray the end of a piece of the seam binding and gently pull a thread in the middle, gathering the ribbon with your fingers - that's it!

This sentiment stamp is one of my most used birthday greetings as it's a really useful width and it works very well for all genders and ages. It's one of the stamps in the Occasional Greetings set which covers most other occasions too. It costs £30.95 for 12  stamps - that's only £2.58 each - and I think it's a sound investment.

Here's how to make this card:

• Cut a 12cm x 21cm piece of Very Vanilla card stock. Score and fold it in half to make a card base. (Note: this isn't a standard size although you can use a standard C6 envelope for it.)
• Cut an 8cm x 8.5cm piece of Early Espresso card stock, tuck into the Square Lattice embossing folder and run through the Big Shot.
• Cut a 6.5cm square piece of the pink floral paper. Cut a 5cm length of coordinating green paper and trim it with the scallop edge border punch. Glue this under the floral square so that just the scallops show. Attach this to the embossed card stock.
• Cut a length of Crumb Cake seam binding. Fray the edge and select a thread from the centre. Gently pull the thread and gather the ribbon softly. Use Snail adhesive to attach it around the embossed card stock, running it over the floral paper.
• Now make the flower: Punch three fancy flowers, snip between each petal and curl the petals under. Punch a tiny flower from an off-cut of the embossed card stock, using one of the Itty Bitty punches. Layer this on top of the three flower shapes and pierce a hole through all the layers. Secure with an Early Espresso brad.
• Arrange the flower over the top of the ribbon with leaves from Certainly Celery card stock using the two-step bird punch.
• Stamp a sentiment onto the card front, using a stamp-a-majig to make sure it's straight. Glue the flower panel above the sentiment.

Supplies
Stamps: Occasional Greetings
Ink: Early Espresso
Card stock: Early Espresso, Certainly Celery
Other: Springtime Vintage designer papers, punches, Square Lattice embossing folder, Crumb Cake seam binding, brad.

I visited a Vintage and Handmade fair at the weekend which was such a visual treat. The sun was shining, the vintage or vintage-style things being sold were beautifully laid out and the morning was enlivened by a trio of ladies singing Andrews Sisters songs. They, and many of the stall holders, had dressed up in vintage clothing and looked wonderful with their printed frocks, carefully styled hair and bright lips. I came away with this gorgeous little wicker hamper (which I shall fill with edibles as a gift) and the most gorgeous cream coffee pot.

There's nothing like a bit of vintage fun is there?! I'm bowled over by the Springtime Vintage range of papers and have plenty more ideas for them. Do come back tomorrow when they'll feature again in my long-promised box tutorial.

Hope to see you then,