All A Flutter over the lavender

It is the last week of term here and life has gone into overdrive, so I'm just popping in with a quickie today inspired by the fabulous Make My Monday challenge where purple and yellow creations are the order of the day. Come and see:

In a desperate attempt to bring a little summer into our soggy lives I stamped a lavender field, using inks in four different shades of purple, and made a pair of butterflies to live there.

One is stamped on water colour paper and the other on a scrap of Naturals Ivory card stock and they're both coloured with Watercolour Wonder crayons, markers and an aqua painter. The creaminess of the crayons gives the butterflies a lovely velvety look and the different card stocks give a subtle colour difference (the one on the left is the water colour paper). I cut my butterflies out with my sharp paper snips and attached them to the card front with glue dots.

This pretty sentiment from the Curly Cute set is stamped on thick vellum paper and embossed with clear embossing powder. The paper was wrapped around the top layer and secured with Snail adhesive at the back.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, All A Flutter, Curly Cute

Ink: Basic Grey, Concorde Crush, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Daffodil Delight

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, water colour paper, vellum

Other: Markers, Subtles water colour crayons, aquapainter, clear embossing powder, heat tool, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

If you live in the UK it will come as no surprise to hear that sports day was cancelled yesterday due to... RAIN - yes folks, it's been raining again! We're going to have another shot at it today so I'll let you know how we get on... See you tomorrow when I'll have something very summery to show you (ha ha, splits sides laughing!)

A recycled garden.

Today I'd like to show you a card that was rescued from the bin! No! Please don't go! It's not too bad I promise! Look:

This was supposed to be a one-layer card I was making for a challenge but unfortunately I placed the mask on the card base wonkily and the card looked as if it had been made under the influence of strong spirits! But I loved the mask, which I made by folding a piece of scrap paper into four, cutting with the decorative label punch and then opening it out. And the sponged garden was rather pretty. I thought it was a shame to waste it.

I love making one-layer cards but there's no denying that they don't always go according to plan! The good news though is that when they don't, you just turn them into layered cards! Cutting the sponged image out straight and mounting it onto Basic Grey card stock was easy and I even found one of my vellum butterflies in my snippets box which made itself quite at home on the card!

All it needed now was a sentiment to match the butterfly (two sentiments, two markers and a stamp-a-majig took care of that!) and mounting on a Whisper White card base. And I actually prefer the final card to the one I'd had in my head first time around! I hope this post has encouraged you not only to try one-layer cards but also to use the ones that don't work out!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Baby Blossoms, All a Flutter, Just Believe and Thank You Kindly (sentiment)

Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Pacific Point, Soft Suede, stazon black

Card stock: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory, Basic Grey, Vellum

Other: Decorative label punch, markers, stamp-a-majig

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.

If you've paid me a visit this week and left a comment or maybe emailed me a message, thank you - I love reading your comments! My posts this week were scheduled as I've been on holiday, but I shall be back this weekend and will be looking forward to catching up with you as soon as possible. Have a wonderful weekend!

Using vellum for things that fly!

I've been having lots of fun with things that fly today! Sadly I'm not talking about a Boeing to the Bahamas but come and see the cards I've been making:

If you're wondering why I photographed this card when a bee had just landed on it, have a closer look! Of course it's not real - it's a vellum bee!

They're really easy to make: you just stamp the bee in black Stazon onto vellum card stock, turn the vellum over when it's dry and colour the back of the bee's body with a Daffodil Delight marker. Then you cut it out and mount it with a glue dot - that's it! Of course, if you don't fancy a bee, you can use this technique with other things that fly too...

... like this gorgeous butterfly!

The markers on the back of the stamped vellum gives a stained glass effect and makes the wings look translucent. I think it's really effective! Here's the same technique with a dragonfly this time:

And zooming in...

... just like a real dragonfly! I think these vellum creatures make great embellishments for my favourite sponged scenes. Today's scene was sponged into a mask made by punching into the centre of a post it note with the decorative label punch. I added plants from the Pocket Silhouettes set and this gorgeous flower from the Afterthoughts hostess set before finishing off with the sentiment positioned with my stamp-a-majig.

Supplies needed for these cards:

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Afterthoughts (hostess set), Nature Walk (for the bee), All a Flutter (butterfly), Nature's Nest (dragonfly)

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Bashful Blue for the sponged scene, Elegant Eggplant, Cherry Cobbler or Pacific Point for the flower and the sentiment. Stazon black.

Card stock: Confetti White, Vellum

Other: Decorative label punch, markers

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.

Stazon is a brilliant invention - an ink which stays on, even when stamping on shiny surfaces! Now, if only someone would invent Stazon on for the memory... There's such a lot to remember at the end of term - I'm off to have a quick panic now!

Thank you for popping in today and I'm sorry I didn't have photos of the Bahamas to show you! Tomorrow it's Three Minute Thursday here so I shall be back with a quickie card then. I hope you can join me!

Coordinated gift set using All a Flutter

It was a lovely friend of mine's birthday this week so I set to work on a card for her. I'd been looking at the FTL 130 sketch on the Clean and Simple Stamping site and thinking it would perfect for show-casing this gorgeous Night of Navy paper from the Patterns designer range.

I used the All a Flutter butterfly, stamped in Night of Navy ink and cut out with my paper snips, to decorate it and the ribbon is the beautiful organza - I like the way you can see a bit of the paper through its sheer edges.

To make the tag, I used an image from Perfect Punches to stamp the outline, then cut it out with the Curly Label punch. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from a retired Sale-a-bration set that I use a lot - it really is worth making a collection of sentiment stamps!

I wanted to get my friend a tiny little something to show her that she is appreciated, and opted for one of those utterly delicious chocolate bars from the Fair Trade Divine range. She is a keen cyclist and thinks nothing of cycling 40 miles in a day, so I felt she'd welcome something to keep her strength up!

I made a wrapper for the chocolate in paper to match the card and topped it with a label cut from Whisper White card stock. I used the Curly Label punch to shape the sides - such a useful technique! The label was stamped with one butterfly and I added another cut-out one to add a bit of dimension. The ends of the package are crimped with the crimper and I think it gives the wrapper a rather professional look!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these projects today but - hang on to your hats! - it doesn't stop there! I also have a very special offer for you today - look:

Special Offer!
Don't you just love the designer paper I used today? It's from the Patterns range and comes in four tone-on-tone designs in every single Stampin' Up colour! These papers are beautiful on their own but are also incredibly useful for adding a little texture or dimension to cards, scrapbook pages and other projects. It's lovely to have all the colours but, at £62, that's a pricy option. Which is why I'm offering a paper share: How would you like to have 160 sheets in a 6"x 6" size for only £16.75? That's all the designs in all of the colours except the in-colours!


If you'd like to take advantage of this offer, just send me an email and I'll get the paper posted direct to you. Please note that because this is my own offer, I can't accept credit cards but I am happy to take payment by paypal, bank transfer, cheque. 


And finally...

...it's me and The Box! Inside this box are some very exciting things from the forthcoming mini catalogue - and, let me tell you, I'm in heaven!


Have a brilliant weekend and I'll see you next week for Masculine Monday,

Stampin' Up gift set for £50

Recently, my lovely friend asked me to devise a gift set for her mum who was just starting out with stamping. I was given a budget of around £50. I set myself the task of making sure that the items I chose would be really versatile. I wanted my friend's mum to be able to make cards for lots of different occasions and all sorts of people of different ages and genders.

I gave this project a lot of thought and eventually came up with this set:

I made the box base out of two 12" x 12" sheets of Crumb Cake card stock and the lid from two 12" x 12" sheets of the gorgeous, textured card stock in Old Olive. The box was topped with a piece of Very Vanilla card stock, stamped with the Medallion background stamp using Old Olive ink. I matted it onto Early Espresso card stock before attaching it to the lid of the box.

The gorgeous wide, striped grosgrain ribbon is just the right scale for a large box like this and can also be used to embellish cards when the gift has been opened. I made a gift tag by stamping the medallion twice and cutting out the centres with a 1 3/4" and a 1" punch, then layering them with dimensionals. A large adhesive rhinestone adds a touch of sparkle and the tag is tied to the ribbon using silver elastic cord.

Inside this box is:

1 Pack of assorted card stock - I suggested brights because it contains Old Olive, the essential green! 

1 Pack of Whisper White card stock, the perfect basic.

Trendy Trees stamp set - because it comes with two sentiments and is good for males, females and children and can cover all seasons and all occasions.

All a Flutter stamp - covers male and female cards and many occasions.

Early Espresso ink pad - for the trunks of the trees and for stamping the butterfly ready for colouring.

Old Olive ink pad - for the tree tops, and because it's the world's best colour ever! (I'm quite a fan of Old Olive - can you tell?!)

Two markers, in Marina Mist and Pretty in Pink, for colouring images, colouring stamps to get multi-coloured images and for picking out bits of sentiments and other stamps.

Don't you just want to dive in and start crafting?!!

The items in this set came to a total of £50.45 and do you know what is amazing? If you ordered them during the Sale-a-bration promotion, you would get an extra stamp set FREE! Now, that is extraordinary value! Click here for all the details. If you'd like to make an order, simply send me an email or phone me on 01280 820593.

It's been so dark and gloomy in Buckingham this past few days that I really feel like hibernating! Still, it makes us appreciate the spring when it finally arrives.

Thank you for spending your time with me today. I'll be back tomorrow with a birthday card using the magnificent Just Believe set. Do pop in and see!

Three Minute Thursday - using All a Flutter

Like many UK mums of school-age children, I am currently living the chaos that is the last week of term. So what do you do during busy times when you need a card fast? (My husband's flippant response to this was to tell me to go and buy a card. I didn't hear him of course - all I heard was blah, blah, blah! I will never, repeat NEVER buy a card!)

Anyway, my solution is the three minute card and, because I think it's a useful idea, I'm making it a regular feature on my blog. So here's introducing Three Minute Thursday! Today's three minute design uses the gorgeous All a Flutter butterfly stamp from the mini catalogue (see it on the side bar.)

I confess I had the Whisper White card bases already cut, but stamping and colouring this design took precisely two minutes so I added an extra one for cutting, scoring and folding the base. The sentiment was stamped using a stamp-a-majig, the butterflies stamped randomly in the same colour. I used that same colour again to colour the butterfly body using a blender pen, then used two other colours to colour the wings. That's it!

Supplies
BLUE BUTTERFLIES
Stamps: All a Flutter, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise, Pretty In Pink
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Blender pen

BROWN BUTTERFLIES

Stamps: All a Flutter, Happy Moments

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Blender pen

It doesn't seem possible that it's Thursday already! And so very nearly the school holidays! Some of you may be wondering whether I'll still be here in the holidays and the answer is yes I will. My classes stop during the holidays but I am happy to do parties for you, take your orders and help with your crafting queries as usual. Also, if you are thinking about becoming a Stampin' Up demonstrator yourself, I would love to hear from you - I'm looking for enthusiastic crafters to join my team! Either call me on 01280 820593 for a no pressure chat or email me for details.

Thank you for popping in to visit me today.

See you soon!

Book marks using Touch of Nature, Autumn Days, Pocket Silhouettes

How many times have a used a torn scrap of used envelope to mark a page in my book? Well, I've been thinking - my books deserve better! So I set to work on a bookmark...

... and got a bit carried away!

These are made by sponging a strip of Whisper White card stock with ink using sponge daubers. I used Bashful Blue for the sky and Old Olive and Soft Suede for the ground. The foliage images are from various sets and are stamped in Old Olive and Always Artichoke over the top of the sponged background. The flowers are punched from bright card stock with the Boho Blossoms punch and attached to the stamped strip with coordinating brads. The corners at the top of the strip were rounded and then it was matted onto coloured card stock.  I stuck a matching 1/2" circle to the top, punched a hole through all the layers and threaded it with 1/4" grosgrain ribbon. And there we have it - really quick and such fun to make!

Supplies
Stamps: Touch of Nature, Autumn Days, Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Always Artichoke
Card stock: assorted colours
Other: Boho Blossom, 1/2" and 1/4" circle punches, 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, brads

Of course, I didn't stop there...

Here are a couple using the wider grosgrain ribbon attached with staples. Doesn't that All a Flutter butterfly look gorgeous in blue? It's so easy to add soft colour with your ink pads and a blender pen.

It seemed a waste not to use up these scraps of the beautiful Cottage Wall designer paper! I stamped the paper with leaves from the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set, matted it onto Rich Razzleberry card stock and attached flowers punched with the Boho Blossoms and 5 petal punches using silver brads.

So now reading, which is already a real luxury for me, will become an even greater pleasure! And why not make some more to add a personal touch to a gift of a book or a book token? Believe me, it's quite hard to stop once you get going!

With the holidays fast approaching is easy to lose yourself in the busy end-of-term rush. But don't forget to schedule in some 'me' time - a stamping party with your girlfriends may be just the breather you need! Why not email me to see if the date you want is free.

See you soon!

FTL 92 Challenge

It all went horribly wrong for me with this week's FTL challenge from Clean and Simple Stamping. Here's Natasha's beautiful clean and simple sketch...

... and here is my effort.

It all got a little bit fussy really - sorry Natasha. One thing I do like about it is the colour scheme. I'm using Soft Suede, one of the new colours, and love the slight oliveness of this brown. I think it goes really well with the Old Olive designer paper from the Sweet Pea stack. I used the 1" circle punch to make the scallops around the middle of the flower. It looked a bit naked so I made a raised border with some more circle punches. I placed this on three pieces of narrow grosgrain ribbon and thought it looked a bit weird so then I added the leaves... Hmmm. Then I added the butterfly, coloured in with markers and finished with the sentiment which I initially stamped directly onto the background paper, but then had to cover it up with this banner because it looked as if I'd done it blindfold...

Supplies
Stamps: All a Flutter, Basic Phrases
Ink: Night of Navy
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Old Olive
Other: Circles and two-step bird punch, Sweet Pea designer paper stack, Designer Series paper (hostess stack), More Mustard and Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon, Earth Elements markers, Stamp-a-majig

Sometimes when you're crafting, things don't work out the way you want them to. That's fine - it means you are learning!

We have a bank holiday weekend here in the UK as well as birthday celebrations in our family.
Hope you have a fabulous weekend lined up too.
See you soon!

FTL Challenge 89 with butterflies

I love it when Natasha posts her clean and simple sketches on Fridays, and always want to get straight onto it, but life has a habit of intervening. It's Saturday and I'm just off to a Quiz night but surely there's just time to squeeze in a quick card! Here's the sketch this week:

I was at a standstill for this challenge as I didn't have an image in three sizes. But then I remembered I had that wonderful butterfly paper from the Sweet Pea stack and I thought of combining it with the All a Flutter  stamp and the butterfly from Touch of Nature. Here's the result:

It doesn't work that well because the paper butterfly isn't quite the same as the ones that I've coloured. But hey! It was worth a try! I cut the paper with the small butterfly in it and cut round the wing. The edges of the paper are faux stitched, sponged and roughed up with my fingernail. The two larger butterflies are stamped in Chocolate Chip ink, coloured with a blender pen in Pumpkin Pie and Tempting Turquoise and positioned in the triangle. Finally I stamped the sentiment, positioning it with my stamp-a-majig, and mounted the panel onto a card base made from Very Vanilla card stock.

Supplies:
Stamps: All a Flutter, Touch of Nature, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Other: Sweet Pea designer paper stack, Chocolate Chip marker, Paper Piercer, Stamp-a-majig

There are more birthdays coming up in my family. Do join me tomorrow for another gift wrap/card set.
But for now it's time to zoom off and display my lack of general knowledge to the world!
Thanks for visiting!