Golden Fine Flourish

I seem to have been doing a lot of heat embossing lately! I will never forget the first time I saw this technique being demonstrated - the stamping in versamark, the sprinkling of the embossing powder, the heating... and when the powder melted and transformed into the raised, shiny image it seemed like magic to me! And no matter how often I see it, it still seems just as amazing!

Today's card is very simple and relies for its impact on the embossing and the richness of the cream, gold and red colour scheme. Come and see:

The Fine Flourish background image is stamped onto Very Vanilla card stock using versamark ink, heat-embossed in gold, wrapped in Cherry Cobbler seam binding and mounted onto the gorgeous brushed gold card stock.

The scalloped tag is from the Perfect Punches stamp set and is so quick to cut out with the coordinating scallop circle punch. I heat embossed that in gold too and the card really does glow in the light!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Fine Flourish, Perfect Punches

Ink: Versamark

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold

Other: Cherry Cobbler seam binding, gold embossing powder, heat tool, scalloped circle punch

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

This card is one I made earlier as not much crafting is getting done around here at the moment. If you are a regular reader of my blog you may be wondering whether I'm swanning about my house admiring my new carpet? Well the answer is no! It all went horribly pear-shaped yesterday and although the carpet fitters turned up, they were unable to fit the carpet fully due to technical difficulties (!) and will be back today. I'm not happy - I'm afraid I'm a bit of a wimp about mess and I want my house back!

Thank you for your visit today. Enjoy your weekend and I'll see you very soon!

Easy Events - for you

I have been a busy little bee over the last few days but today I was able to post off welcome packs to the lovely ladies that have joined my team, the Inkredibles, this month.

It is such a brilliant time to become a Stampin' Up demonstrator because not only do you get your incredible value starter kit for only £119, but Stampin' Up are also giving away an in-colour kit for all those joining this month. The kit, worth £27.95, contains an assorted pack of card stock in the latest colours, plus five, full-sized matching ink pads. What an amazing deal! And with 20% off all your orders and only £225 in orders to submit by the end of March, there's nothing to lose. It probably sounds too good to be true, but I promise there are no catches. If you'd like to find out more, give me a call or drop me an email - I'd be happy to give you all the information so that you can mull it over in your own time.

Would you like to see the card I sent to my ladies?

This one's slightly different to the one in the photo - I made lots of them in different colours. It features Fine Flourish which makes such a fantastic and subtle background for all sorts of occasions.

To make the floral inchie, I stamped the flower image from Easy Events and coloured it using a blender pen and markers. It's cut out using the 1 1/4" square punch and matted onto a coordinating piece of card stock cut out with the 1 3/8" square punch. I've recently discovered that a 5cm square piece of card stock can easily be turned into this scalloped mat with the scallop trim corner punch. The floral inchie fits perfectly inside - how fabulous is that?! The sentiment was stamped, cut out with the jewellery tag punch and tied onto one of the scallops with a piece of linen thread.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Fine Flourish, Easy Events, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Sahara Sand, Basic Grey

Card stock: Sahara Sand, Wisteria Wonder

Punches: Scallop Trim corner punch, Jewellery Tag punch, Square punches

Other: Markers, linen thread

I'd love to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

My daughter has just cracked me up! She and I have always had a thing about words and can have each other in fits with a deliberate mispronunciation or a dodgy accent. When she started learning other languages our repertoire grew so that, for example, she no longer shops at New Look, we prefer to call it Nouveau Regardez. Just now, I asked her whether she'd finished her homework. "I did," she said. "But I made a complete 'oreille de cochon' of it so I'm having to do it again!"

Right, I'd better get going otherwise we're going to have some very hungry people around here! Thank you for stopping by, for following my blog and for all your messages - I love reading them. Three Minute Thursday is back here tomorrow and I'll have a quick card for you. Until then, enjoy your day!

EDITED TO ADD: Oops! Looks like I made a  complete oreille de cochon of this post as it actually IS Thursday! I do apologise to those of you expecting a fast card today - I've had a senior moment! - but do pop back tomorrow when we'll have a one-time only 'Free-minute Friday'!

Layered Butterfly

Hello! I've just returned home from the most relaxing holiday in Devon - my shoulders, which were up around my ears before we left have now dropped a good six inches! Difficult to feel tense when you wake up to this...

and this...

We've been staying with some lovely people who have made our visit truly special and now I'm ready for action again.

I got back a little late to get my crafting things out but I know you'll be wanting to see a card and I've been meaning to show you this one for a while now:

I was experimenting with layering different shapes and textures when I made this one, adding a tone-on-tone Top Note shape to the card base and a stamped and pierced Crumb Cake layer with this dusky pink designer paper from the Springtime Vintage range.

The Top Note is attached to the card front using dimensionals and the layered butterfly adds to the dimensional effect.

The butterfly is made by layering die cut butterflies - the larger one from the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die and the smaller embossed one from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die. I fixed them together with a glue dot and wrapped a little linen thread around them to make the body of the butterfly.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Fine Flourish, Trendy Trees (sentiment)

Ink: Crumb Cake, Rose Red

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Rose Red

Other: Piercing tool, mat pack, linen thread, Springtime Vintage designer paper, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, Top Note Bigz die

You can buy any of these supplies from me and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593 and I'll be happy to help.

Well, there's a definite feeling of things coming to an end - the holidays, summer and, of course, this month's special offer. If you've been thinking about taking advantage of this and getting your gorgeous cosmetics bag, reel of striped Rich Razzleberry ribbon and that fabulous clip assortment, then you have two days left to contact me! The offer ends at the end of tomorrow. 

Do forgive me if you've left me a message in the last week or so and haven't yet had a reply. I shall be looking forward to catching up again this week.

See you tomorrow,