Hello punches and dies

I couldn't NOT do another card for this week's Less is More challenge now could I? Chrissie and Mandi want to see cards featuring dies and punches - and that is a lot of fun! The starting point for my card was this wonderful colour challenge at ColourQ:

Isn't this a fabulous colour combination?! And not one I'd have thought up myself I have to say!

I was quite taken with the leafy pattern on the quilt in the inspiration picture, so I brought out my beloved Little Leaves die and set to work...

... laying a spare leafy die cut onto my card stock and sponging Baja Breeze ink over it to get this effect for my background. I die cut two more leaf sprigs, cut them down a little and arranged them over the background. The edges of the card stock have been distressed to create a bit of contrast between the panel and the card base.

I used a couple of border punches  and some taffeta ribbon at the bottom of the panel, to ground the leaf sprigs, and added a lovely ruffled flower made with my Boho Blossoms punch and centred with a Basic Grey brad. The sentiment is from Elementary Elegance, a stamp set that comes free with a £45 order as part of the Sale-a-bration promotion.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Elementary Elegance (Sale-a-bration freebie)

Ink: Baja Breeze, Cajun Craze (Dusty Durango isn't available in the UK)

Card stock: Whisper White, Lucky Limeade, Basic Grey, Cajun Craze

Other: Scallop border and Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punches, Boho Blossom punch, Little Leaves die, taffeta ribbon in Basic Black, Basic Grey brad, stamp-a-majig

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.

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

Yesterday, while I was cooking dinner, I had some charming company in the shape of my daughter who was busy making sweet treats to celebrate one of her friends' birthday. We spent a happy hour giggling while we worked and it was only afterwards I realised that she had liberally sprinkled the entire kitchen with icing sugar and used practically every bowl in the cupboard! She played her trump card at this point, pleading essential GSCE coursework, and left the washing up to me! Here's what my clever girl made though - orange and lemon creams. Aren't they cute?!

Thanks for dropping in on me today. I'll be back tomorrow with a quick card for Three Minute Thursday. Hope to see you then,

Boho Blossom flowers in vellum vase

Today's card is all about colour. I fell in love with this dramatic paper and thought Summer Sun would really sing with it!

I had the idea of a vellum vase at the weekend when I was away, but couldn't think how I'd adhere it to the card invisibly. After experimenting for a while I found that if you cut thin strips of double sided tape to the shape required it is barely noticable. I do like the way you can see the 'stalks' through the vellum. The vase is cut with a 1 3/8" circle punch on the edge of the vellum to get a flat base, then run through a crimper. The stalks are thin strips of card stock and the flowers are made by layering two of the Boho Blossom punched flowers and fastening with a gold brad. The leaf is from the 2 step bird punch.

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Moments (sentiment)
Ink: Night of Navy, More Mustard (to sponge the edges of the flowers)
Card stock: Old Olive, Summer Sun
Other: Boho Blossom, 1 3/8" circle and 2 step bird punches, Night of Navy designer series paper (hostess gift), gold brads, corner rounder, crimper (non-SU)

The Night of Navy designer series paper I've used today comes in a stack of different colours and is one of the gifts you can earn by hosting a Stampin' Up workshop. Hosting a workshop is simple - you invite friends and family round to your house, I show them how to make gorgeous cards and other items and then they get to play themselves! I've never known a dull Stampin Up workshop - everyone always has great fun!

I was introduced to paper crafting when I was invited to a Stampin' Up party and I am so pleased I was because it has brought such a lot of pleasure into my life. I'd love to come and host a workshop for you so why not check your diary and book a workshop with me today!
Hope to see you soon.

Fine Flourish thank you

Earlier this week I talked about the tradition of sending thank you cards - much nicer than sending a text or email! I've been making a collection of little notelets and this card is part of that set:

There are four new background stamps in the new mini catalogue and this one - Fine Flourish - is one of them. It works really well as a simple one colour print but could also be coloured in to make a big impact. The others are basic dots and stripes and there's an alphabet one too - all really useful building blocks for cards and scrapbooking that you'll want to use again and again. 

The flowers and leaves are all put together using punches. Have you spotted where the leaves come from? They're the wings from the two step bird punch! They've been folded in half, run through a crimper and sponged with ink. It means that with that punch, not only do you get a bird but you also get two completely different kinds of leaf as well! (Have you noticed - I love to find lots of uses for my stamps and punches!)

Supplies:

Stamps: Fine Flourish, Happy Moments

Ink: Night of Navy, Certainly Celery, Ballet Blue

Card stock: Whisper White, Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Night of Navy, Vellum

Other: Two step bird, scallop circle, Boho Blossom and 1/2" circle punches, Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, Ballet Blue brads, crimper

Thanks for visiting me today.

Hope to see you soon!

 

Fall-to Layout Challenge 83

There's another great sketch on the Clean and Simple site this weekend! I haven't strayed from the original sketch at all except by making the central panel much smaller.

My biggest problem with the card was finding a brad for my flowers - I wanted Old Olive or Bashful Blue and didn't have them; tried gold but then the flowers looked like poinsettias (note to self: don't forget to remember this at Christmas...) which was NOT the look I was after! Eventually I used these green ones from my stash but they're not Always Artichoke and they don't match and it's going to bother me all weekend...

...In fact it doesn't really show on this photo but in Actual Real Life (as my lovely daughter would amusingly say) it is glaringly obvious.

I am pleased with the flowers though. When they were just punched from card stock they seemed too stiff for this card, so I crumpled them up and split them carefully so that I ended up with two papery flowers from a single card stock one. Then I layered two sizes of papery blooms together and separated the petals with sharp scissors.

( Yuk! You really can see it's the wrong green in close-up! Old Olive would've been so good, or perhaps bashful blue...)

I got the idea for splitting the flowers from Heather Pulvirenti who made this gorgeous flower with the scallop circle punch. Thanks Heather!

Supplies: (all Stampin' Up unless specified)
Stamps: Sincere Salutations
Ink: Old Olive
Card stock: Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Bashful Blue
Other: Scallop border punch, Boho Blossoms punch, Le Jardin designer paper, green brads (from stash)

This would have been an incredibly quick card if it hadn't been for my hunt for a matching brad. I am so looking forward to my delivery of Stampin' Up brads - I'll never have a problem matching colours again!
Better warn the postman he may need help carrying that delivery...
Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Saturday Sketch challenge

I enjoyed yesterday's challenge so much that I thought I'd do another. This time it's Saturday Sketch 140 from Stamping 411. I love doing these challenges because the constraints often push me outside my comfort zone. That's a good thing! Here's the card I made:

I found a scrap of this beautiful old paper and tried to create a vintage feel with faded colours, and just the vibrant flowers taking centre stage.

Here's what I used (all Stamping Up):
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie and Certainly Celery.
Ink: Bashful Blue (for sponging) Ballet Blue (for sentiment), Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie (for sponging flower petals).
Stamps: Leaf from With Gratitude (retired), sentiment from Three for You (retired)
Other: Boho Blossoms punch, Scallop circle punch, Scallop border punch, gold brads.

Well that's it for my challenge today.
I have no doubt that life will throw up plenty of challenges in the week ahead!
Better get some sleep so I can be ready for them...
Hope you have a good week. See you soon.

Vicky