Bordering on Romance with butterfly

There are some gorgeous colours going on at the ColourQ site this week as usual and I've been hoping to get the time to make a card with them. Those dots in the inspiration photo fascinated me (scroll down to see it) and I thought I could use the flower border in my Bordering on Romance stamp set to recreate the feel of them. Come and see:

I stamped the flower border three times and coloured in the petals with markers to make the background. For the butterfly, I layered die cuts together and tied them together with bakers twine. Once I'd made the butterfly I was able to work out the position of the sentiment and stamp it using my stamp-a-majig for position.

Here's a close up of that dimensional butterfly on the floral background. The panel was attached to an Island Indigo card base which has a Whisper White panel inside for writing in and it lies flat for posting so it's practical too!

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

Stamps: Bordering on Romance, Elegant Thank You

Ink: Island Indigo, Real Red

Card stock: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade

Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Beautiful Wings embosslits die, Big Shot, Lucky Limeade bakers twine, Patterns designer paper, 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.

I've spent the week catching up on everything after my giddy time away and was able to spend some time crafting at the end of the week. My desk is in the living room which means that I have to keep it very tidy but also means that I get to chat to everyone as they come in and out which I love. Yesterday my oldest son had some of his gang round - the loveliest boys! I asked one rosy-cheeked blond boy whether he had a cat of his own as he was petting Tuppence. He shook his head. "Perhaps you're more of a dog family?" I suggested. "No," he said. "We're more of a fish family actually!"

Have a lovely weekend!

No stamping butterfly shaped card

I make very few shaped cards as my card-making ethos is to keep it as simple as possible! But when I saw that Chrissie and Mandi at Less is More have challenged LiMettes to make a card any shape except square or rectangle, I remembered a frivolous little number we made at a Stampin' Up training session once. Here's my simplified version of it using Marina Mist and Bashful Blue, the gorgeous tonal colours suggested by this week's Dynamic Duos challenge:

There's no stamping on this little shaped Easel card at all (except the sentiment inside) and it's made using Stampin' Up's Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die. I like the way the bottoms of the wings tuck into the indented bit of wing on the card base to keep the card open. The layered butterfly on the front  is made using dotty designer paper from the Patterns paper stack and is embellished using white bakers twine and self-adhesive pearls.

To make the card base I used a folded piece of card stock and positioned it on the die just under the top points of the wings so I didn't end up with two pieces! I scored and folded the top part (the card front) and glued a single die cut butterfly to it to form the easel.

This is what the card looks like when it's closed...

... and a glimpse at the inside where there's just room for a tiny message. I think these are sweet little thank you cards which would certainly be remembered by the recipient - and wouldn't they make cute little novelties to pop in girls' party favour bags?!

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

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Marina Mist

Card stock: Marina Mist, Whisper White

Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die, Big shot, Patterns designer paper stack in Subtles, Basic Pearls, white bakers twine

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.

My desk, which is in a real cold spot in our living room, is a fantastic place to be in this weather. The fingerless gloves and hot water bottles of the winter are a thing of the past and I'm cool as a cucumber with the French doors flung wide open. The cat doesn't know what to do with herself though. She wanders in and flings herself down on the rug for a few moments and then hoists herself up and slinks back outside where she is teased mercilessly by aimless flies and chirpy birds. My daughter describes her as 'Tuppence with lashings of tail'!

I can't wait to see all the shapely inspiration this week. See you soon!

Hugs,

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,

Butterflies and top note card

Don't you find butterflies fun to work with? I love them and have been having lots of fun with the exclusive Stampin' Up dies - the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz and the Beautiful Wings Embosslits dies. Today I thought I'd show you my latest creation:

I've layered the largest Embosslits butterfly over the smallest Bigz one, wrapping linen thread around it and tying in a knot at the top. Once the thread is trimmed, it looks like antennae!

I like the ever-decreasing size of the layers on this card. The top note layer is attached with dimensionals and the other two layers glued flat.

Here's a close-up of that butterfly. The Crumb Cake layer it's mounted on has been stamped with the Fine Flourish background stamp. I do love this stamp, which not only makes a beautiful background (and takes on so many different looks depending on how its coloured) but is also great for adding texture.

Here's how to make this card:

• Take an A5 piece of Very Vanilla card stock. Score and fold in half to make a card base.
• Die-cut a top note shape from Very Vanilla card stock and attach it to the card front with dimensionals.
• Cut a 6.5cm x 7cm piece of pink tone-on-tone designer paper from the Springtime Vintage range and glue it to the top note shape.
• Cut a 5.5cm x 6cm piece of Crumb Cake card stock. Use Crumb Cake ink to stamp with the Fine Flourish background stamp and decorate with a pierced border. Glue this onto the designer paper layer.
• Stamp a sentiment with Rose Red ink using a stamp-a-majig to make sure it's straight.
• Die-cut the butterflies from Rose Red card stock and stick together with a thin strip of Sticky Strip. Tie linen thread around them several times and finish with a knot. Trim the ends to form antennae.
• Attach the butterfly with dimensionals.

Supplies
Stamps: Fine Flourish, Trendy Trees (sentiment)
Ink: Rose Red, Crumb Cake
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Rose Red, Crumb Cake
Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz, Top Note, Beautiful Wings Embosslits dies, linen thread

People sometimes ask me: "Why should I buy a Big Shot? I can just cut things out with scissors." And of course that's true... but a Big Shot does much more than just cut things out! Here's my list of invaluable things my lovely Biggie does for me:

• Cuts true curves and intricate cuts I could never cut out properly.
• Cuts large curved shapes that would be very difficult to cut.
• Cuts out 3D templates, such as the milk carton, scalloped envelope and pillow box, making multiple boxes a doddle!
• Adds texture in seconds with embossing folders!
• Makes personalising cards and scrapbook titles easy peasy! In my opinion, it's worth having for the alphabet and number dies alone!
• Die-cuts fabric, sandpaper, leather, thin plastic, cork, thin wood, thin metal... as well as many other materials. Imagine the possibilities!
• Makes gorgeous, detailed embellishments very quickly.

I have not regretted buying my Big Shot for one tiny minute and use it almost every day. You'll find loads of dies and folders in the catalogue to use with the machine too - many of them exclusive to Stampin' Up. If you'd like to know more, just send me an email and I'll be happy to answer your questions.

When my daughter was tiny I introduced her to the joys of Enid Blyton's Noddy stories, which she loved. I found the cutest little play set for her with an interlocking road, several houses and Noddy's little car as well as several plastic figures. Her favourite figures were Noddy and his friend Big Ears and she took them everywhere with her. She hadn't quite understood that Noddy's friend was called Big Ears (or perhaps she assumed no-one could possibly be that rude!) so she called him Biggie. So my Big Shot has the added advantage of reminding me that my gorgeous, feisty teenager was once a gorgeous, feisty tot!

Thank you so much for visiting me today. If you have a minute tomorrow do come back and see me again as I've got very excited today about my new In Stitches wheel, which I have vandalised modified!

See you then,